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BUFFALO 

HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 
PUBLICATIONS 


VOLUME   FIFTEEN 

EDITED  BY  FRANK  H.  SEVERANCE 


KntoM  unit  {tour*  free* 
»uff«U 


STUDIES  OF 
THE  NIAGARA  FRONTIER 


BY  FRANK  H.  SEVERANCE 


BUFFALO,     NEW    YORK: 
PUBLISHED  BY  THE 

BUFFALO    HISTORICAL   SOCIETY 

1911 


F 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

A  FAMILIAR  FOREWORD I 

EARLY  LITERATURE  OF  THE  NIAGARA  REGION  ...      9 
NINETEENTH    CENTURY    VISITORS    WHO    WROTE 

BOOKS 25 

THE  NIAGARA  REGION  IN  FICTION 77 

A    DREAMER    AT    NIAGARA:     CHATEAUBRIAND    IN 

AMERICA 97 

THE  NIAGARA  IN  ART 113 

JOHN  VANDERLYN'S  VISIT  TO  NIAGARA  IN  1802  ...  159 

THE  NIAGARA  IN  SCIENCE 175 

TWO  EARLY  VISITORS 217 

HISTORICAL  ASSOCIATIONS  OF  BUFFALO 237 

FROM  INDIAN  RUNNER  TO  TELEPHONE 253 

SOME  THANKSGIVING  CONTRASTS 261 

ON  THE  NIAGARA  FRONTIER  W7ITH  HARRIET  MAR- 

TINEAU 277 

HISTORY  THAT  ISN'T  SO 291 

NARRATIVES  OF  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY  VISITORS 

TO  NIAGARA 313 

FROM  THE  "FOUR  KINGS  OF  CANADA/'  1710 316 

THE  "BORASSAW"  NARRATION  OF  1721 318 

PIERRE  F.  X.  DE  CHARLEVOIX,  S.  J.,  1721 319 

FATHER  BONNECAMPS'  DESCRIPTION,  1749 323 

PETER  KALM'S  ACCOUNT,  1750 324 

THE  ABBE  PIQUET  IN  1751 334 

ADVENTURES  OF  M.  BONNEFONS,  1753 334 

DIARY  OF  RALPH  IZARD,  1765 339 

JONATHAN  CARVER,  1766 346 

ST.  JOHN  UE  CREVECOEUR,  1785 346 

CAPT.  ENYS'  VISIT  IN  1787 363 

JAMES  SHARAN  IN  1787 378 

ANDREW  ELLICOTT,  1789 384 


CONTENTS. 

t 

PAGE 

PATRICK  CAMPBELL,  1791 386 

DUNCAN  INGRAHAM,  1792 387 

BENJAMIN  SMITH  BARTON,  1798 393 

CHARLES  WILLIAMSON,  1799 399 


APPENDIX 

OFFICERS  OF  THE  SOCIETY 403 

LIST  OF  PRESIDENTS  OF  THE  SOCIETY 404 

PROCEEDINGS,  FORTY-NINTH  ANNUAL  MEETING  .  405 
IN  MEMORIAM,  WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH  .  423 
INDEX 425 


MAPS  AND  DIAGRAMS 

DIAGRAM  OF  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  TRAVEL  ...     70 

CREVECOEUR'S  MAP  OF  THE  NIAGARA 360 

CAPT.  ENYS'  SKETCH  OF  THE  FALLS 365 


A   FAMILIAR   FOREWORD 


T  T  is  now  a  good  many  years  since  I  sat,  one  summer  day, 
•*•  on  the  river  bank  at  Niagara-on-the-Lake,  and  looked 
across  at  Fort  Niagara  on  the  opposite  shore.  I  had  never 
been  there,  and  knew  nothing  about  it. 

"It's  worth  seeing,"  said  a  friend  at  my  side.  "Queer 
old  place.  They  say  Louis  the  Fourteenth  built  it." 

I  was  skeptical.  It  struck  me  as  absurd  that  the  French 
monarch  should  be  concerned  with  anything  away  in  the 
interior  of  America.  I  had  everything  to  learn.  But  that 
chance  remark  of  an  idle  hour  gave  spur  to  my  curiosity.  I 
soon  found  my  way  to  Parkman,  and  his  pages  opened  the 
door  to  many  other  sources  of  light.  He  gave  me  the 
general  story  of  the  French  in  America,  and  I  was  no 
longer  skeptical  as  to  the  building  of  Fort  Niagara  by 
Louis  XIV.  But  neither  Parkman  nor  any  other  printed 
source  afforded  the  details  I  sought  to  know  regarding  the 
early  history  of  our  Niagara  region.  Indeed,  Parkman  was 
always  an  aggravation  with  his  innumerable  footnote  ref- 
erences to  manuscript  authorities  and  sources.  I  wanted  to 
read  the  documents  he  cited;  and  soon  learned,  as  any 
student  of  our  history  learns,  that  if  one  seeks  to  know 
what  has  happened  hereabouts — seeks  to  know  who  have 
been  the  moving  spirits  on  the  Niagara  since  its  discovery, 
to  know  what  they  did  and  when,  and  what  their  influence 
has  been — one  must  go  to  the  manuscript  sources. 


2  A   FAMILIAR  FOREWORD. 

Old  manuscripts  are  not  infallible,  but  they  afford  the 
nearest  approach  to  a  true  record  that  we  can  have.  Al- 
though they  present  many  difficulties  to  the  student,  they 
also  offer  him  many  pleasures  impossible  to  the  printed 
page.  It  is  with  somewhat  the  feeling  of  an  explorer  that 
one  opens,  let  us  say,  a  bundle  of  old  documents  that  have 
lain  hidden  away  and  forgotten  for  many  years.  He  soon 
learns  to  detect  the  grain  of  worth  in  a  mass  of  the  worth- 
less. If  the  student  has  gained  access  to  Government 
archives,  he  can  pursue  his  especial  theme  as  a  hunter  pur- 
sues his  game,  through  mazes  of  correspondence,  memoirs 
and  official  reports.  Presently  he  finds  that  by  putting  this 
and  that  isolated  fact  together,  with  regard  to  other  data 
of  time,  place  and  men,  the  little  page  of  history  which  he 
seeks  to  know  is  somewhat  brightened,  the  always  dim  past 
is  made  by  his  research  a  little  clearer. 

Thus  it  comes  about  that  in  trying  to  ascertain  the  facts 
of  the  early  history  of  the  Niagara  region,  I  was  led  from 
books  to  documents,  to  Government  depositories  and 
archives.  Fort  Niagara  continued  to  be  the  inspiration  of 
my  quest;  for  it  is  soon  apparent  to  any  student  of  the 
region,  that  the  somnolent,  half-forgotten  old  fort  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Niagara  is,  historically,  the  one  paramount 
spot  in  this  part  of  the  world.  So  it  came  to  pass  that  on 
occasion  I  found  myself  in  Paris,  hunting  for  the  early 
history  of  Fort  Niagara.  Official  letters  of  introduction 
had  opened  the  way;  and  I  was  cordially  received  at  a 
certain  office  in  the  old  Pavilion  du  Flores,  on  the  Seine 
side  of  the  Louvre.  It  was  with  uncommon  satisfaction 
that  here,  one  morning,  as  I  turned  over  the  contents  of  a 
carton  of  old  papers,  I  came  upon  an  ancient,  well-preserved 
map  of  the  mouth  of  the  Niagara  river,  "at  the  foot  of  Lake 
Ontario,  on  which  is  shown  the  machicolated  house  and  the 


A   FAMILIAR   FOREWORD.  3 

proposed  fort  (Niagara),"  drawn  at  Niagara  by  Chausse- 
gros  de  Lery,  June  21,  1726.  Of  even  greater  interest  were 
De  Lery's  own  drawings,  the  original  elevations  and  floor 
plans  of  the  fort,  signed  by  him  and  dated  at  Quebec, 
January  19,  1727.  The  fort  was  being  built  then,  and  here 
were  the  plans,  by  the  man  who  built  it.  These  ought  at 
least  to  settle  some  questions,  to  clear  away  some  misinfor- 
mation long  current  regarding  the  age  and  original  appear- 
ance of  Fort  Niagara.  That  these  old  drawings  and  reports, 
made  by  a  French  military  engineer  in  America  almost  two 
hundred  years  ago,  should  have  escaped  the  vicissitudes  of 
Paris — the  Revolution,  the  Commune,  the  destruction  of 
palaces  and  all  they  contained,  the  rage  of  mobs  and  the 
perpetual  obliteration  of  old  things,  is  matter  for  marvel. 
But  here  they  were;  and  since  the  originals  could  not  be 
carried  off  to  the  banks  of  the  Niagara,  the  securing  of 
copies  was  a  simple  detail  in  the  work  of  collecting  our 
regional  records,  for  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society. 

I  may  as  well  confess  that  I  have  long  been  a  book- 
hunter,  and  have  pursued  my  obscure  game,  as  opportunity 
offered,  in  divers  queer  corners  of  the  world.  I  have  tasted 
the  pleasure  of  loitering,  in  quest  of  Niagarana,  on  the  Quai 
Voltaire  and  among  the  stalls  of  St.  Paul's  Churchyard. 
As  for  the  Paris  quais  I  agree  with  the  expert — I  forget 
which  one — who  long  ago  declared  that  nothing  was  to  be 
found  in  their  boxes  but  Voltaire's  "Charles  Douse." 
Something  else,  of  course,  even  less  to  be  desired  than 
Voltaire;  but  as  for  Americana,  the  collector  wastes  his 
time  on  the  Paris  quais.  I  suspect  that  they  are  regularly 
gleaned  in  the  interests  of  dealers,  whose  shops  in  the 
near-by  Quarter  are  apt  to  have  all  the  rarities  there  are 
except  a  few — offered  for  all  the  money  there  is! 

The  always  dreamed-of  achievement,  a  book  of  great 


4  A   FAMILIAR   FOREWORD. 

value  for  an  inconsiderable  price,  is  of  course  never  possible 
when  the  said  book  is  in  the  hands  of  a  very  wise  dealer. 
Only  once  or  twice  has  it  fallen  to  me  to  be  able  to  make  the 
usual  book-hunter's  boast.  Years  ago  I  did  find,  in  Bristol, 
England,  a  perfect,  clean  copy  of  Hennepin's  "Louisiane," 
with  the  original  map,  but  with  no  covers.  It  was  a  curious 
discovery.  I  know  not  what  power  hypnotized  the  dealer 
into  letting  me  carry  it  off  for  two  pounds!  A  suitable 
binding  added  by  a  London  expert  made  an  altogether 
desirable  treasure  of  it,  such  as  a  dealer  would  offer  today 
for  perhaps  $150.  All  of  which  is  related  with  due  apology, 
merely  by  way  of  assuring  the  student  and  would-be  col- 
lector that  although  the  booksellers  have  of  late  grown 
discouragingly  wise  as  to  values,  bargains  in  Americana 
may  still  be  found.  Even  without  them,  there  is  pleasure 
in  the  pursuit. 

For  the  source  books  relating  to  the  Niagara  region 
London  is,  I  think,  the  best  hunting-ground,  though  the 
continental  dealers  are  sometimes  eccentric  in  their  valua- 
tion, and  occasionally  offer  rare  works  at  lower  prices  than 
the  leading  dealers  of  London  would  consider  just.  The 
New  York  market  is  at  times  good,  but  never  cheap ;  and 
always  the  book-auction  is  the  collector's  opportunity. 

Several  of  the  earliest  authors  who  mention  the  Niagara, 
such  as  Champlain,  Sagard,  Le  Clercq,  Lescarbot  and 
Hennepin  in  his  first  work,  are  among  the  great  rarities  in 
the  field  of  Americana.  In  twenty  years  I  have  had  but 
one  opportunity  to  buy  an  original  Le  Clercq.  Champlain's 
"Des  Sauvages,"  which  is  really  the  beginning  book  of  a 
collection  of  Niagara  literature,  is  one  of  the  rarest  of 
books,  but  five  perfect  copies  being  known.  The  only  copy 
that  has  come  to  sale  in  recent  years,  so  far  as  I  am  aware, 
was  in  the  Robert  Hoe  library,  sold  at  auction  in  New 


A   FAMILIAR   FOREWORD.  5 

York  in  April,  1911 ;  on  which  historic  occasion  it  brought 
the  considerable  figure  of  $3825.  The  collector  of  Niagara 
literature  need  not  grieve,  however,  either  at  its  rarity  or  its 
costliness.  Although  it  is  the  first  book  in  the  literature  of 
the  Niagara,  it  tells  us  very  little;  and  the  price  of  it, 
judiciously  expended,  would  buy  nearly  all  that  has  been 
published  since  Champlain's  day,  of  essential  value  relating 
to  the  Niagara.  I  am  discoursing  on  these  things  because 
they  are  aspects  of  our  regional — our  home — history  worthy 
of  some  record;  and  I  am  minded  to  discourse  at  some 
length  in  pages  following,  on  what  may  be  called  the  literary 
aspects  of  our  local  history,  regarding  which  from  time  to 
time,  numerous  inquiries  reach  me.  A  recent  visitor  at  the 
Historical  Building,  a  school-teacher  from  Boston,  after 
making  many  intelligent  inquiries  about  the  Niagara  region, 
observed  reflectively:  "But  you're  so  new  here,  you  can't 
have  much  history !"  I  might  have  replied  that  white  man's 
history  on  the  Niagara  runs  back  as  far  as  it  does  on  the 
Massachusetts  coast;  but  she  had  gone  back  to  Boston 
before  I  thought  of  it.  It  is  just  as  well — she  might  have 
challenged  the  statement;  some  of  these  New  Englanders 
take  their  Norumbega  very  seriously ;  though  if  it  be  a  mere 
matter  of  conjecture  and  plausible  theory,  there  is  on  our 
side  Etienne  Brule,  forerunner  of  Champlain,  and  not 
unlikely  the  white  discoverer  of  Niagara  Falls  and  Chau- 
tauqua  Lake  and  many  other  places  between  Lake  Huron 
and  the  Susquehanna  river.  But  leaving  that  shadowy 
figure  out  of  consideration,  there  remains  a  century  of 
history  hereabouts,  under  the  French,  still  waiting  to  be 
written,  from  the  documents;  followed  by  a  third  of  a 
century  of  British  domination  on  both  sides  of  the  Niagara ; 
also  as  yet  for  the  most  part  unwritten ;  and  finally,  for  the 
American  side,  considerably  more  than  a  century  of  events 


6  A   FAMILIAR   FOREWORD. 

— of  war  and  peace  and  progress.  Surely  all  this  does  not 
leave  us  of  the  present  generation  exactly  impoverished  as 
to  local  history. 

In  two  or  three  papers  following,  I  shall  try  to  make 
some  review  of  the  literature  of  the  Niagara  region,  and 
especially  of  what  has  been  said  of  it  by  travelers,  the  for- 
gotten pages  of  whose  books,  if  brought  together,  would 
afford  us  glimpses  of  our  region  and  our  city  of  Buffalo, 
year  by  year  from  the  days  of  the  beginnings  hereabouts. 
Something  may  be  said  of  the  Niagara  region  in  Fiction,  in 
Science,  even  in  Art;  by  way  of  demonstration,  possibly, 
that  there  is  something  in  our  local  history  (I  am  now 
replying  to  another  critic)  besides  the  Burning  of  Buffalo 
and  the  Hanging  of  the  Three  Thayers. 

I  should  like  to  include,  too,  in  this  volume,  along  with 
miscellaneous  papers  of  local  bearing,  a  few  of  the  many 
addresses  which  have  been  given  of  late  years  before  the 
Historical  Society  or  other  organizations,  especially  at  the 
four  o'clock  Sunday  afternoon  "Talks"  which  for  a  time 
were  a  feature  of  the  Society's  activities.  These  talks, 
when  given  by  the  Secretary,  were  usually  on  historical 
subjects,  often  suggested  by  a  passing  anniversary  or  local 
event.  Many  speakers,  including  the  most  talented  men  and 
women  of  Buffalo,  and  an  occasional  celebrity  from  abroad, 
addressed  these  meetings.  As  a  rule  these  addresses  were 
not  written,  and  are  not  preserved;  but  two  or  three  of 
the  papers  which  I  propose  to  include  in  the  present  volume 
have  been  elaborated  from  notes  made  for  these  Talks,  it 
being  deemed  well  to  preserve  in  the  Society's  Publications 
some  record  of  this  feature  of  its  work. 

As  this  volume  is  destined  primarily  for  members  of  the 
Buffalo  Historical  Society,  and  for  other  students  and  insti- 
tutions with  which  I  have  been  brought  into  some  measure 


A   FAMILIAR  FOREWORD.  7 

of  pleasant  acquaintance,  I  venture  upon  a  certain  famili- 
arity of  discourse,  which  it  is  hoped  will  not  lessen  the 
value  of  what  is  offered.  I  feel  that  I  am  addressing  my 
friends. 


EARLY   LITERATURE   OF  THE 
NIAGARA   REGION 


OOME  time  ago  I  was  asked  to  point  out,  to  a  club  en- 
^  gaged  in  literary  study,  what  was  the  essential  litera- 
ture of  the  Niagara  region.  Possibly  my  notes,  made  in  re- 
sponse to  that  request,  may  here  be  of  service. 

By  "Niagara  region"  we  mean  not  merely  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  the  Falls,  or  of  the  river,  but  the  whole  mid-lake 
region,  through  which  the  Niagara  runs.  It  is  an  excep- 
tionally important  region,  in  several  ways. 

The  great  cataract  has  made  it  a  point  of  pilgrimage  for 
nature  lovers  and  travelers  of  all  the  earth,  for  more  than 
two  and  a  half  centuries. 

It  has  been  the  scene  of  important  events,  of  trade,  of 
strategy  and  of  war,  in  the  history  of  three  nations. 

And  it  has  been,  now  for  more  than  a  century,  a  frontier, 
a  boundary  between  two  great  powers,  not  always  at  peace. 

These,  and  other  aspects  of  it  that  might  be  named — 
especially  the  modern  industrial — give  it  exceptional  interest 
to  the  student.  By  way  of  reminder,  of  showing  how  rich 
our  regional  history  is,  I  propose  here  something  of  a 
review  of  it,  in  some  aspects  that  may  prove  helpful  to  the 
student.  And  first,  as  to  its  written  records. 

If  by  "literature  of  the  Niagara  region"  we  mean  what 
has  been  written  about  it,  we  are  confronted  by  a  vast  mass 
of  material ;  for  remember  that  from  the  era  of  discovery 
to  the  present  day  this  frontier  has  played  an  important  part 


10  EARLY   LITERATURE   OF 

in  history;  and  that  for  150  years  at  least  it  has  been  a 
Mecca  of  travelers  who  have  thronged,  pencil  in  hand,  to 
gaze  and  to  record  their  emotions.  All  of  this  descriptive 
writing — both  objective  and  subjective — is  undoubtedly 
literature  of  the  Niagara  region;  but  happily  much  of  it 
need  not  detain  us. 

At  the  outset  of  our  survey,  we  must  consider  the  narra- 
tives of  mission  work,  of  exploration,  and  those  wilderness 
campaigns  inspired  by  the  ministers  of  Louis  XIV.,  the 
record  of  which  is  perhaps  the  most  romantic  page  in 
American  history.  I  find  it  difficult,  as  I  study  this  early 
period,  to  dissociate  the  history  of  our  region  from  the 
literature  of  that  history.  All  we  know  of  what  took  place 
here,  say  prior  to  the  middle  of  the  Eighteenth  century,  we 
glean  from  very  few  books.  Much  more  is  still  to  be 
gleaned  from  manuscript  records,  which  abound;  but  the 
printed  sources  are  few.  It  is  not  so  with  recent  history, 
where  we  have  all  the  corroborative  evidence  of  many  wit- 
nesses, participants  in  events  described — a  vast  array  of 
contemporary  chronicle.  But  the  student  of  the  early 
Franciscan  and  Jesuit  missions  in  this  field ;  of  the  explora- 
tory expeditions  of  La  Salle,  and  of  de  Celeron;  even  of 
the  early  military  campaigns  hereabouts,  can  draw  his  infor- 
mation from  but  a  very  few  printed  sources. 

Our  Niagara  literature  begins  with  Champlain.  In  his 
very  rare  book,  "Des  Sauvages"  (1604),  there  are  allusions 
to  the  Great  Lakes  and  a  cataract — statements  based  on 
reports  made  by  the  Indians  to  him  in  1603.  These  state- 
ments are  virtually  repeated  in  Lescarbot's  "Histoire  de  la 
Nouvelle  France,"  published  in  1609. 

The  next  references  to  our  region  are  in  the  narratives 
of  the  Franciscan  missionaries  among  the  Hurons.  In 
1626  one  of  these  missionaries,  Joseph  de  la  Roche  Dallion, 


THE  NIAGARA   REGION-  11 

appears  to  have  reached  the  Niagara,  though  that  name  does 
not  occur  in  the  narrative.  The  record  of  that  visit  is  to  be 
found  in  Sagard's  "Histoire  du  Canada"  (1636)  and  Le 
Clercq's  "Premier  Etablissement  de  la  Foy"  (1690). 

Next  in  chronological  order  are  the  visits  of  the  Jesuit 
missionaries  Brebeuf  and  Chaumonot,  in  the  winter  of 
164041.  These  are  reported  in  the  very  rare  "Relations" 
of  the  order,  now  made  readily  accessible  in  a  well-edited 
reprint.  The  Jesuit  Relations  as  a  whole  offer  surprisingly 
little  regarding  our  region.  Le  Jeune's  narrative  of  1635 
relates  to  the  Neutrals;  and  Father  Jerome  Lalemant's 
relation  of  1641  has  the  first  mention  of  our  river  by  name. 
Writing  from  the  mission  at  St.  Mary's  in  the  Huron 
country,  May  19,  1641,  to  the  Rev.  Father  Jacques  Dinet, 
Provincial  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  in  France,  he  gives  the 
following  account: 

"From  the  first  village  of  the  Neutral  Nation  which  one 
finds  on  arriving  there  from  this  place,  and  continuing  to 
travel  to  the  south  or  southeast,  it  is  about  four  days' 
journey  to  the  mouth  of  the  celebrated  river  of  that  nation 
into  the  Ontario  or  lake  of  St.  Louys.  On  this  side  of  that 
river,  and  not  beyond  it,  as  a  certain  map  shows — are  the 
greater  part  of  the  villages  of  the  Neuter  Nation.  There 
are  three  or  four  beyond,  ranging  from  east  to  west,  to- 
wards the  Nation  of  the  Cat,  or  Erieehronons. 

"This  river  or  stream  is  that  by  which  our  great  Lake  of 
the  Hurons,  or  fresh-water  sea,  discharges  itself;  it  flows 
first  into  the  lake  of  Erie,  or  of  the  nation  of  the  Cat ;  and 
there  it  enters  into  the  lands  of  the  Neuter  Nation,  and 
takes  the  name  of  Onguiaahra,  until  it  discharges  itself  into 
the  Ontario  or  lake  of  Saint  Louys,  from  which  finally 
flows  the  river  that  passes  before  Quebec,  called  the  St. 
Lawrence.  So  that,  if  once  we  were  master  of  the  seacoast 
nearest  to  the  dwelling  of  the  Iroquois,  we  could  ascend  by 
the  river  St.  Lawrence  without  danger,  as  far  as  the  Neuter 


12  EARLY  LITERATURE   OF 

nation,  and  a  good  deal  beyond  that,  with  much  saving  of 
trouble  and  time." 

There  is  no  known  earlier  reference  to  the  Niagara,  by 
name.  Half  a  dozen  years  later  another  Jesuit  makes  an 
interesting  allusion  to  the  cataract,  without  using  the  name. 
This  is  Father  Paul  Ragueneau,  who  writes  in  the  "Rela- 
tion" of  1647-48: 

"Almost  due  south  from  the  country  of  the  same  Neutral 
Nation,  we  find  a  great  lake  nearly  two  hundred  leagues  in 
circumference,  called  Erie;  it  is  formed  by  the  discharge 
of  the  fresh- water  sea,  and  throws  itself  over  a  waterfall 
of  frightful  height,  into  a  third  lake,  named  Ontario,  which 
we  call  Lake  Saint  Louys." 

The  next  reference  to  Niagara  that  I  am  able  to  note  is 
contained  in  Galinee's  narrative. 

Three  famous  men  came  to  the  Niagara  in  September, 
1669:  the  Sulpitian  missionaries,  Rene  de  Brehant  de 
Galinee  and  Dollier  de  Casson;  and  with  them,  La  Salle — 
but  this  was  not  the  latter's  great  adventure;  that  awaited 
him  nine  years  later.  The  narrative  of  this  visit  of  1669  is 
Galinee's.  Here  is  what  he  says  regarding  our  river : 

"We  discovered  a  river  one  eighth  of  a  league  wide  and 
extremely  rapid,  which  is  the  outlet  or  communication  from 
Lake  Erie  to  Lake  Ontario.  The  depth  of  this  stream  (for 
it  is  properly  the  River  St.  Lawrence)  is  prodigious  at  this 
spot;  for  at  the  very  shore  there  are  fifteen  or  sixteen 
fathoms  of  water,  which  fact  we  proved  by  dropping  our 
line.  This  outlet  may  be  forty  leagues  in  length,  and 
contains,  at  a  distance  of  ten  or  twelve  leagues  from  its 
mouth  in  Lake  Ontario,  one  of  the  finest  cataracts  or  water- 
falls in  the  world;  for  all  the  Indians  to  whom  I  have 
spoken  about  it  said  the  river  fell  in  that  place  from  a  rock 
higher  than  the  tallest  pine  trees ;  that  is,  about  two  hundred 
feet.  In  fact,  we  heard  it  from  where  we  were.  But  this 


THE  NIAGARA   REGION.  13 

fall  gives  such  an  impulse  to  the  water  that,  although  we 
were  ten  or  twelve  leagues  away,  the  water  is  so  rapid  that 
one  can  with  great  difficulty  row  up  against  it.  At  a 
quarter  of  a  league  from  the  mouth,  where  we  were,  it 
begins  to  contract  and  to  continue  its  channel  between  two 
steep  and  very  high  rocks,  which  makes  me  think  it  would 
be  navigable  with  difficulty  as  far  as  the  neighborhood  of 
the  falls.  As  to  the  part  above  the  falls,  the  water  draws 
from  a  considerable  distance  into  that  precipice,  and  very 
often  stags  and  hinds,  elks  and  roebucks,  suffer  themselves 
to  be  drawn  along  so  far  in  crossing  this  river  that  they 
find  themselves  compelled  to  take  the  leap  and  to  see  them- 
selves swallowed  up  in  that  horrible  gulf. 

"Our  desire  to  go  on  to  our  little  village  called  Gan- 
astogue  Sonontoua  Outinaouatoua  prevented  our  going  to 
see  that  wonder,  which  I  regarded  as  so  much  the  greater, 
as  the  River  St.  Lawrence  is  one  of  the  largest  in  the  world. 
I  leave  you  to  imagine  if  it  is  not  a  beautiful  cascade,  to 
see  all  the  water  in  this  great  river,  which  at  its  mouth  is 
three  leagues  in  width,  precipitate  itself  from  a  height  of 
two  hundred  feet  with  a  roar  that  is  heard  not  only  from 
the  place  where  we  were,  ten  or  twelve  leagues  distant,  but 
actually  from  the  other  side  of  Lake  Ontario,  opposite  this 
mouth,  from  which  M.  Trouve  told  me  he  had  heard  it. 
We  passed  this  river,  accordingly,  and  at  last,  after  five 
days'  voyage,  arrived  at  the  end  of  Lake  Ontario." 

Incurious  man,  to  have  come  within  sound  of  the  Falls, 
and  not  go  to  see  them !  Were  the  conditions  of  wilderness 
.travel  so  exacting  and  peremptory,  that  one  might  not  turn 
aside  to  behold  the  greatest  wonder  in  the  world?  Was  it 
eagerness  to  be  on  his  missionary  way,  or  fear  of  the 
Iroquois,  that  kept  Galinee  from  being  the  discoverer  of  our 
cataract?  His  hearsay  account  is  good.  Although  his 
distances  on  the  river  are  wrong,  his  report  of  the  height 
of  the  fall  is  much  nearer  right  than  that  of  Hennepin,  who 
came  nine  years  later. 


14  EARLY  LITERATURE   OF 

Galinee's  narrative,  by  the  way,  has  only  recently  had  its 
first  complete  publication  in  English  (with  French  text, 
map  and  notes),  thanks  to  the  scholarship  of  Mr.  James  H. 
Coyne,  and  the  enterprise  of  the  Ontario  Historical  Society, 
in  whose  "Papers  and  Records"  for  1903  it  is  to  be  found. 

From  the  date  of  this  visit  to  the  coming  of  Hennepin 
there  is  no  literature  of  the  Niagara  region.  With  the 
exception  of  the  passing  of  Galinee  there  was  none  for  more 
than  forty  years.  This  was  due  in  part  to  the  interruption 
of  missionary  work,  for  reasons  which  need  not  be  entered 
upon  here ;  but  it  may  be  noted  that  the  work  of  the  French 
missionary  priests  among  the  Indians  in  what  is  now  New 
York  State  covers  only  the  years  1655  to  16$%>  and  a  second 
brief  period,  1667  to  1685 — in  all,  about  twenty  years. 
There  were  a  few  visits  outside  of  those  dates,  but  by  1690 
there  was  no  missionary  in  this  State  save  Father  Milet, 
and  he  had  just  been  carried  captive  to  Oneida  from  Fort 
Frontenac.  The  early  knowledge  of  our  region  was  given 
to  the  world,  not  by  missionaries  who  pushed  their  way 
westward  through  Western  New  York,  for  they  did  not  do 
that,  but  by  those  who  came  south  and  east  from  the  Huron 
missions.  When  those  missions  ceased,  literary  darkness 
resumed  its  sway  over  the  Niagara.  In  1664  the  Jesuit 
historian,  Father  Francisco  Creuxio,  published  his  ponder- 
ous Latin  "Historiae  Canadensis."  The  map  in  this  work 
is  dated  1660,  and  indicates  the  Niagara  Falls  as  "Ongiara 
catarractes."  The  author  was  never  in  America,  and  got 
his  data  from  the  missionary  relations  and  from  Champlain. 
It  added  nothing  to  the  world's  knowledge  of  our  region; 
nor  was  anything  added,  that  I  know  of,  until  one  day  in  the 
year  1683,  when  there  was  issued  from  the  printing-shop 
of  the  Widow  Hure,  in  Paris,  the  first  and  most  valuable  of 
Father  Hennepin's  books,  entitled  "Description  de  la 


THE  NIAGARA   REGION-  15 

Louisiane"  etc.  This  contained  an  account  of  La  Salle's 
expedition  of  1678,  and  the  first  detailed  description  of  the 
Niagara  in  literature. 

In  the  years  that  followed  we  have  other  works  by 
Hennepin,  more  or  less  trustworthy — there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  he  had  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  the  latest 
work  bearing  his  name,  entitled  'Nouveau  Voyage,"  etc. 
But  of  his  "Louisiane"  and  a  second  book,  the  "Nouvelle 
Decouverte,"  there  were  many  editions  in  many  languages. 
The  narrative  of  the  building  of  La  Salle's  vessel,  the 
Griffon,  above  the  Falls,  and  of  the  voyage  up  the  Lakes 
and  down  the  Mississippi,  was  probably  more  widely  read — 
if  we  may  judge  from  the  many  editions  of  Hennepin — 
than  anything  else  relating  to  America  that  had  appeared 
up  to  that  time. 

Next  to  Hennepin,  chronologically,  is  I  think  the  Baron 
La  Hontan,  an  officer  in  the  expedition  of  Denonville,  that 
came  to  the  Niagara  in  1687.  A  very  unpriestly  man  was 
the  Baron ;  evidently  a  devil-may-care  sort  of  fellow ;  an 
adventurous  soldier,  an  easy  and  voluminous  writer,  whose 
pages,  even  thus  long  after,  provoke  many  a  smile  for  their 
satire  and  cleverness.  He  was  the  first  visitor,  not  a  priest, 
to  write  of  the  Niagara,  and  he  did  it  with  a  degree  of 
license  which  might  well  make  him  the  patron  saint  of  a 
certain  sort  of  modern  newspaper  reporter.  La  Hontan 
had  an  eye  to  a  "good  story."  As  was  usually  the  case  with 
the  early  visitors,  a  good  many  years  elapsed  between  La 
Hontan's  visit  to  the  Niagara,  in  1687,  and  the  publication 
of  his  "Voyages  dans  I'Amerique  Septentrionale"  etc.,  the 
first  edition  of  which  bears  date  1703,  and  is  followed  by 
well  nigh  as  many  others,  as  is  the  case  with  Hennepin. 

Belonging  to  the  great  La  Salle  episode  are  the  narratives 
of  Tonty,  and  Joutel,  and  the  documents  of  La  Salle  him- 


16  EARLY  LITERATURE   OF 

self,  which  as  published  by  Margry  are  source  material, 
although  modern  in  date  of  printing.  There  is  much  else  of 
this  class — material  relating  to  the  early  days,  but  of  recent 
issuance.  This  is  not  the  literature  that  I  seek  now 
especially  to  designate,  but  rather  the  little  list  of  books,  the 
first  issues  of  the  first  narratives  relating  to  our  region. 
To  the  Jesuit  "Relations,"  and  to  the  narratives  of  La  Salle, 
Hennepin,  Tonty  and  Joutel,  we  might  add  the  earliest 
Canadian  histories — Champlain,  Lescarbot,  Sagard,  and  of 
a  later  period,  La  Potherie  and  Charlevoix.  Something  of 
all  these  the  student  should  know,  who  would  claim 
familiarity  with  the  literature  of  our  region  say  prior  to  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

It  is  a  great  pleasure,  to  one  who  would  know  the  historic 
background  of  his  home  region,  to  read  these  old  books. 
I  confess  a  fondness  for  the  original  editions;  the  same 
information,  in  modern  printing  and  fresh  binding,  does  not 
make  the  same  appeal  to  the  mind,  to  the  imagination.  I 
like  the  tough,  hand-made  paper  of  the  ancient  books,  I 
like  their  leather  and  parchment  bindings ;  and  I  like  to 
pore  over  their  quaint  old  French.  These  things  bring  one 
nearer  to  the  old  days;  and  presently,  out  of  the  yellow 
pages,  there  step  forth  a  procession  of  worthies — brave 
men  and  holy  men;  priests  with  their  portable  altars  on 
their  backs,  strange-clad  soldiers,  explorers,  voyageurs  and 
coureurs-de-bois,  even  the  red  Indian  himself.  They  play 
their  varied  parts,  in  this  early  Niagara  drama,  and  pass 
each  to  his  place,  along  the  horizon  of  the  imagination. 
They  and  their  deeds  are  our  early  history,  and  we  come 
to  know  them  only  through  these  rare  and  ancient  volumes. 

A  well-defined  period  in  the  history  of  our  region  is  that 
of  the  Old  French  War,  which  ended  in  1760,  or  on  our 
frontier,  with  the  surrender  of  Fort  Niagara  in  1759.  There 


THE  NIAGARA   REGION.  17 

is  an  abundance  of  contemporary  and  of  modern  literature 
relating  thereto,  but  usually  a  lack  of  local  detail.  Park- 
man,  who  is  easily  first  among  historians  of  that  subject, 
reviews  it  in  due  proportion  to  his  general  narrative.  His 
ken  is  continental,  whereas  we  are  particularly  concerned 
with  events  on  or  relating  to  the  Niagara.  Two  or  three 
of  the  earlier  books,  by  participants  in  the  conflict,  the 
student  should  know.  For  the  British  side,  there  is  the 
history  of  the  war  published  in  1772  by  Thomas  Mante; 
there  is  Knox's  "Journal";  and  there  is  the  journal  of  Sir 
William  Johnson,  who  conducted  the  siege  and  achieved  the 
capture  of  Fort  Niagara.  For  the  French  side,  we  have  the 
"Memoires  sur  la  derniere  guerre  de  I'Amerique  septen- 
trionale  entre  La  France  et  I'Angleterre,"  by  Frangois 
Pouchot,  who  fortified  and  defended  Fort  Niagara,  and 
finally  handed  it  over  to  Sir  William  Johnson.  He  was  the 
last  official  representative  of  French  dominion  on  the 
Niagara.  His  narrative,  published  in  1781  at  Yverdon  in 
Switzerland,  is  one  of  our  most  precious  "sources."  The 
original  edition,  like  most  of  the  books  I  am  mentioning,  is 
hard  to  find,  and  costly  to  buy  when  found.  An  excellent 
translation  was  published  in  this  country  in  1866,  but  even 
that  is  not  easy  to  procure. 

Unique  as  a  record  of  travel  for  mere  sight-seeing,  hi 
the  early  years  of  British  occupancy  of  this  region,  and  a 
vivid  narrative  of  genuine  adventure  in  the  Niagara  gorge, 
is  a  rare  old  journal,  printed  in  New  York  sixty-five  years 
ago,  entitled  "An  Account  of  a  Journey  to  Niagara, 
Montreal  and  Quebec,  in  1765;  or,  'tis  eighty  years  since." 
This  is  said  to  be  the  diary  of  Ralph  Izard  of  South 
Carolina,  Representative  and  later  United  States  Senator, 
1789-1795.  The  journal  was  published  anonymously  by  his 
grand-daughter,  Anna  Izard  Deal. 


18  EARLY  LITERATURE   OF 

The  literature  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  so  far  as  it 
relates  to  the  Niagara,  is  largely  incidental  and  fragmentary. 
One  of  the  books  which  ought  to  be  written  and  no  doubt 
will  be,  some  day,  will  give  the  history  of  the  Niagara  region, 
or  of  the  Lower  Lakes,  under  the  British,  say  from  1760 
to  1796,  when  the  frontier  posts  were  relinquished  to  the 
Americans.  Much  has  been  written  of  this  time.  Much 
more  remains,  in  documents,  in  Government  archives,  wait- 
ing the  coming  of  some  student  with  taste  and  leisure  to 
construct  a  narrative  for  the  general  reader.  As  Sir 
William  Johnson  was  in  a  sense  the  most  important  per- 
sonage hereabouts,  or  exercising  authority  here,  from  1759 
till  his  death  in  1774,  so  everything  relating  to  his  official 
conduct  and  especially  William  L.  Stone's  "Life"  of  him, 
belongs  to  our  literature  of  that  period,  as,  for  later  periods, 
do  Stone's  books  about  Brant  and  Red  Jacket. 

The  many  works  relating  to  the  Indians  of  Western  New 
York  need  not  detain  us  for  specification.  Most  of  them 
are  of  general  scope;  others  are  narratives  of  Government 
embassies,  or  of  missionary  ministrations.  Especially  good, 
in  the  historic  sense,  are  the  several  narratives  of  early 
philanthropic  visits  by  members  of  the  Society  of  Friends. 

The  reader  has  no  doubt  observed,  in  his  own  thought, 
that  every  phase  of  life  in  the  region  since  its  discovery, 
may  have  its  literature.  This  is  true.  It  is  also  true  that 
events  so  overlap  and  run  together;  causes  are  so  far- 
reaching  in  effect,  that  it  is  quite  impossible  to  differentiate 
the  literature  of  one  region,  however  well  defined.  To 
illustrate:  the  student  of  the  Revolutionary  period  on  the 
Niagara  soon  finds  his  interest  drawn  to  the  migration  of 
Loyalists  from  the  United  States  into  Canada.  Much  of  the 
Niagara  district  of  what  is  now  Ontario,  was  settled  by  this 
class.  Canada  may  well  be  proud  of  them,  as  they,  today, 


THE  NIAGARA   REGION.  19 

are  proud  of  their  ancestors.  The  "First  Families  of 
Virginia"  are  not  a  truer  aristocracy.  The  books  that  record 
their  history,  and  the  whole  Loyalist  or  "United  Empire" 
movement,  may  well  have  a  place  in  our  review,  yet  this 
subject  in  many  of  its  relations  takes  us  far  afield  from  the 
Niagara.  So  again,  if  we  consider  the  Civil  War  period, 
we  find  one  of  its  most  important  antecedent  phases  to 
have  been  in  connection  with  the  "Underground  Railroad" 
and  the  helping  of  runaway  slaves  into  Canada.  An  ample 
and  romantic  literature  on  that  subject  awaits  the  inquirer. 

The  literature  of  the  War  of  1812,  even  of  that  part  of 
it  which  belongs  to  the  Niagara,  runs  into  hundreds  of 
volumes.  So  too  of  the  Canadian  political  outbreak  of 
1837-38  known  as  Mackenzie's  Rebellion,  or  better,  as  the 
"Patriot  War."  The  catalogue  of  the  library  of  the  Buffalo 
Historical  Society — an  unpretentious  collection — contains 
nearly  four  hundred  titles  of  books  or  parts  of  books  and 
other  references  relating  to  this  particular  subject.  Even 
of  the  little  comic  opera  war  known  as  the  Fenian  Raid  of 
1866,  there  is  a  considerable  literature,  including  some 
fiction,  and  some  history  so  belligerently  serious  that  it  is 
vastly  amusing. 

So  I  might  go  on,  specifying  every  phase  of  life,  be  it 
military,  political  or  economic,  and  finding  a  considerable 
literature  for  every  phase.  The  development  of  commerce 
on  the  lakes,  the  evolution  of  the  canals  and  railroads,  the 
very  recent  industrial  development  based  on  the  utilization 
of  Niagara  power — all  of  these  and  other  subjects  have  each 
a  literature.  Especially  the  last-mentioned  subject  has  a 
large  and  constantly-growing  literature,  but  it  is  chiefly  to 
be  found  in  the  reports  of  scientific  societies  and  in  the 
pages  of  electrical,  chemical,  railway  and  other  trade  or 
technical  journals. 


20  EARLY  LITERATURE   OF 

The  earlier  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  brought  few 
professional  writers  to  the  banks  of  the  Niagara.  The 
earlier  descriptions  are  to  be  found  in  the  reports  or  letters 
of  French  officers  who  came  to  Fort  Niagara,  or  passed 
through  the  Lakes  in  the  course  of  duty.  Of  this  sort  was 
the  visit  of  the  Baron  de  Longueuil  and  other  officers  in 
1721.  Two  of  his  companions,  the  Marquis  de  la  Cavagnal 
and  Captain  de  Senneville  "had  undertaken  that  voyage 
only  out  of  curiosity  of  seeing  the  fall  of  the  water  at 
Niagara,"  according  to  the  report  of  Chaplain  Durant.  The 
tourist  procession  began  with  them.  The  Rev.  Father 
Bonnecamps,  of  De  Celeron's  expedition  of  1749,  has  left  a 
short  description;  and  Peter  Kalm,  a  Swedish  botanist 
who  reached  the  Niagara  in  1750,  has  left  a  long  one.  After 
Kalm,  I  know  of  no  visitor  to  our  region  who  recorded  his 
impressions  until  1753,  when  there  came  to  Niagara  a 
soldier  serving  under  Pouchot  who  had  the  enterprise  to 
keep  a  journal.  This  was  J.  C.  Bonnefons.  Many  years 
after  the  campaign  in  which  he  served  had  passed  into 
history,  his  journal  came  to  light  and  was  published  in 
Paris.  It  contains  details  of  value.  He  records  incidents 
of  his  sojourn  at  Fort  Niagara  in  April  of  the  year  named, 
and  gives  a  picturesque  account  of  his  adventures  at  the 
Falls,  describing  at  length  how,  alone,  he  descended  by 
means  of  roots  and  trees  to  the  bottom  of  the  chasm  and 
after  hours  of  fatigue  climbed  out  again.  So  far  as  I  am 
aware,  Bonnefons'  account  of  Niagara  has  never  been  pub- 
lished in  English. 

During  the  years  of  British  control  of  this  region  and 
through  the  Revolutionary  war,  there  was  a  growing  litera- 
ture of  our  region,  but  it  was  almost  wholly  embodied  in 
the  narratives  of  soldiers  who  shared  in  the  campaigns  or 
in  the  journals  or  official  reports  of  men  who,  like  Sir 


THE  NIAGARA   REGION-  21 

William  Johnson,  bore  a  large  part  in  the  history  of  the 
region  at  that  period.  A  notable  exception  is  the  journal 
of  General  Izard.  To  this  period  belongs  the  narrative  of 
Jean  Hector  St.  John  de  Crevecoeur,  French  consul  at  New 
York,  1783-93.  In  his  "Voyage  dans  la  Haute  Pensylvanie" 
he  gives  a  pleasant  narrative  of  a  visit  to  Niagara.  It  is 
without  dates  but  the  visit,  as  we  learn  from  a  letter  to  his 
son,  was  in  July  I,  1785. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  century  we  find  numerous  works 
offering  to  the  reading  public  better  information  regarding 
the  Niagara  than  had  hitherto  been  available.  Not  only  in 
English,  but  in  other  European  languages  appear  general 
compilations  of  travel  in  which  the  Niagara  region  received 
more  and  more  attention.  A  notable  work  of  this  character, 
was  a  three-volume  account  of  America,  both  descriptive 
and  historical,  by  Christof  Daniel  Ebelings,  professor  of 
history  and  Greek  in  the  gymnasium  of  Hamburg.  This 
work,  prepared  with  characteristic  German  thoroughness, 
appeared  in  1793,  antedating  by  a  year  or  so  the  far  more 
valuable  accounts  of  enterprising  travellers  who  are  of  real 
importance  in  the  annals  of  our  region. 

Before  noting  them,  however,  mention  should  be  made 
of  a  rare  little  book,  entitled  "Tour  through  Upper  and 
Lower  Canada  by  a  Citizen  of  the  United  States."  This 
was  the  Rev.  John  Cosens  Ogden,  who  came  in  1794  by 
schooner  across  Lake  Ontario  to  Fort  Niagara.  He  makes 
a  good  report  of  what  he  saw,  paying  especial  attention  to 
the  transportation  of  merchandise  over  the  Niagara  portage. 
In  a  list  of  books  which  includes  many  rarities,  his  is  one 
of  the  rarest.  The  author  was  a  son-in-law  of  General 
David  Wooster  of  Colonial  and  Revolutionary  fame;  he 
resided  in  New  Haven,  1771-1785,  and  was  afterwards  an 
Episcopal  minister  at  Portsmouth,  N.  Y.  His  long  account 


22  EARLY  LITERATURE   OF 

of  Upper  Canada  shows  rather  marked  Loyalist  sym- 
pathies. 

Nearly  a  year  after  Ogden,  in  June,  1795,  came  the  Due 
de  la  Rochefoucault  Liancourt.  His  elaborate  "Travels 
through  the  United  States  of  North  America,  the  Country 
of  the  Iroquois  and  Upper  Canada,"  is  probably  one  of  the 
best  known  books  relating  to  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  In  spite  of  many  errors,  some  of  which,  no  doubt, 
in  the  English  editions,  are  attributable  to  the  translator, 
this  work  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  that  we  have  for 
details  of  conditions  hereabouts  as  they  were  at  the  close 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 

A  year  later,  September,  1796,  came  Isaac  Weld,  Jr.,  a 
British  writer  and  artist,  whose  handsome  quarto  volume 
is  prized  not  merely  for  its  record  of  early  American  con- 
ditions, but  for  its  engravings  from  Weld's  own  drawings. 
He  is,  I  think,  the  first  writer  of  books  who  sojourned  at 
Fort  Niagara  after  it  passed  into  the  control  of  the  Ameri- 
cans. He  writes  at  some  length  of  the  conditions  of  the 
garrison  and  of  all  that  he  saw  and  experienced  in  a  leisurely 
visit  on  the  Niagara.  Subsequent  visitors  found  some 
things  to  criticise  and  to  correct  in  Weld's  pages,  but  on 
the  whole  he  has  given  us  a  picture  of  conditions  which  is 
not  surpassed  in  value  in  all  our  records  of  that  period. 

In  this  same  year  we  have  the  visit  to  Niagara  of  a 
French  savant,  Charles  F.  Volney,  member  of  the  National 
Institute  of  France  and  of  many  learned  societies.  In  the 
days  of  our  grandfathers  Volney's  work  was  still  read.  Al- 
though looked  upon  in  his  day  as  an  eminent  scientist,  I 
doubt  if  his  work  could  be  rated  to-day  as  worthy  of  study. 
He  came  to  America  in  1795  and  in  October  of  the  follow- 
ing year  visited  the  Niagara.  He  travelled  indeed  for  a 
time  with  Weld,  but  they  do  not  appear  to  have  been  to- 


THE  NIAGARA   REGION-  23 

gether  in  our  region.  His  work,  "Tableau  du  Climat  et  du 
sol  des  Etats-Unis  d'Amerique,"  is  chiefly  concerned  with 
the  geological  or  rather  physical  aspects  of  the  lower  lake 
region.  Of  popular  description,  his  pages  contain  little.  It 
is  worth  noting  that  Volney's  memory  is  still  cherished  hi 
his  own  country.  Dying  in  Paris,  in  1820,  he  left  an  en- 
dowment, so  that  there  still  is  an  annual  Volney  prize  given 
by  the  French  Institute  for  proficiency  in  camparative  phil- 
ology. 

Alexander  Henry  in  1764,  Jonathan  Carver  in  1766, 
James  Sharan  in  1787,  and  P.  Campbell  in  1793,  visited  the 
Niagara  and  wrote  of  it  in  their  books;  all  now  rare, 
especially  so  in  the  case  of  Campbell's  "Travels  in  the  In- 
terior inhabited  parts  of  North  America,"  one  of  the 
scarcest  of  books  relating  to  the  Niagara.  "The  Adven- 
tures of  James  Sharan,  compiled  from  the  Journal  written 
during  his  Voyages  and  Travels,"  etc.,  was  published  in 
Baltimore  in  1808,  and  contains  an  account  of  his  visit  to 
Niagara  Falls  in  1787. 

In  the  last  year  of  the  i8th  century,  came  an  English 
artist,  John  Maude,  whose  visit  to  the  Falls  of  Niagara  in 
1800,  published  in  London  in  1826,  is  a  book  of  undoubted 
value.  Its  illustrations  from  the  artist's  drawings  are  among 
the  most  interesting  of  our  early  views  of  Niagara.  His 
journal  records  many  matters  of  local  interest  relating  to 
Buffalo  and  the  Niagara  frontier.  It  is  from  such  pages 
as  his  that  we  come  to  know  in  some  measure  the  conditions 
of  our  region  at  that  remote  time. 


19TH    CENTURY    VISITORS    WHO 
WROTE    BOOKS 


/TpHE  i  pth  century  opened  appropriately  with  the  visit  to 
•**  the  Niagara  region  of  a  British  official,  George  Heriot, 
Deputy  Postmaster-General  of  British  North  America.  His 
quarto  volume,  "Travels  through  the  Canadas,"  etc.,  pub- 
lished in  London  six  years  later,  is  a  matter-of-fact,  sensible 
account  of  conditions  at  the  opening  of  the  century.  Statis- 
tician though  he  was,  in  contemplation  of  Niagara  he  be- 
came a  sentimentalist:  "The  Falls  of  Niagara  surpass  in 
sublimity  every  description  which  the  powers  of  language 
can  afford  of  that  celebrated  scene,  the  most  wonderful  and 
aweful  which  the  habitable  world  presents."  So  unqualified 
a  statement  to-day  would  provoke  challenge,  but  we  know 
the  world  and  its  wonders  now  better  than  they  did  in 
Heriot's  time.  His  exuberant  description  of  Niagara  was 
first  published  in  the  London  Sun  in  1801 ;  translated  and 
published  in  Le  Moniteur  of  Paris,  it  had  a  wide  currency 
throughout  Europe.  Few  writers  have  contributed  more  to 
the  spread  of  information  regarding  Niagara  than  this 
British  official. 

Three  years  after  him  came  Tom  Moore,  whose  letters 
to  his  mother  from  Niagara,  and  whose  poems  written  there 
have  been  much  copied.  As  I  have  written  elsewhere  of  the 
poets,  in  relation  to  Niagara,  I  am  ignoring  them  in  the 
present  review.  Of  more  value  to  the  student  of  local  con- 
ditions are  the  grave,  precise  observations  of  Dr.  Timothy 


26  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

Dwight,  President  of  Yale  College,  whose  "Travels  in  New 
England  and  New  York,"  published  in  four  volumes,  record 
what  he  saw  on  the  Niagara  in  October,  1804.  Dwight  must 
rate  among  the  best  of  our  early  authorities.  Here  is  a  por- 
tion of  his  account  of  Buffalo  as  he  saw  it  in  1804: 

"Buffaloe  Creek,  otherwise  called  New-Amsterdam,  is 
built  on  the  north-eastern  border  of  a  considerable  mill- 
stream,  which  bears  the  same  name.  A  bar,  at  the  mouth, 
prevents  all  vessels  larger  than  boats,  from  ascending  its 
waters.  For  boats  it  is  navigable  about  eight  miles.  Its 
appearance  is  more  sprightly  than  that  of  some  others  in 
this  region.  The  south-western  bank  is,  here,  a  peninsula, 
covered  with  a  handsome  grove.  Through  it  several  vistas 
might  be  cut  with  advantage;  as  they  would  open  fine 
views  of  the  lake;  a  beautiful  object.  The  prospect,  which 
they  would  furnish  towards  the  west  and  south-west,  would 
be  boundless. 

"The  village  is  built  half  a  mile  from  the  mouth  of  the 
creek;  and  consists  of  about  twenty  indifferent  houses. 
The  Holland  company  owns  the  soil.  Hitherto  they  have 
declined  to  sell  it;  and,  until  very  lately,  to  lease  it.  Most 
of  the  settlers  have,  therefore,  taken  up  their  ground  with- 
out any  title.  The  terms,  on  which  it  is  leased,  are,  that  the 
lessee  shall  within  nine  months  build  a  house,  thirty  feet  in 
front,  and  two  stories  in  height ;  and  shall  pay,  if  I  mistake 
not,  two  dollars,  annually,  for  each  lot  of  half  an  acre. 
The  streets  are  straight,  and  cross  each  other  at  right 
angles,  but  are  only  forty  feet  wide.  What  could  have 
induced  this  wretched  limitation  in  a  mere  wilderness  I  am 
unable  to  conceive.  The  spot  is  unhealthy,  though  of  suffi- 
cient elevation,  and,  so  far  as  I  have  been  informed,  free 
from  the  vicinity  of  any  stagnant  waters.  The  diseases 
prevailing  here,  are  those,  which  are  common  to  all  this 
country.  The  inhabitants  are  a  casual  collection  of  adven- 
turers; and  have  the  usual  character  of  such  adventurers, 
thus  collected,  when  remote  from  regular  society ;  retaining 
but  little  sense  of  Government,  or  Religion.  We  saw  about 


VISITORS    WHO    WROTE   BOOKS.  27 

as  many  Indians  in  this  village  as  white  people  The  super- 
intendent of  Indian  affairs  for  the  Six  Nations  resides 
here." 

The  next  year  came  Timothy  Bigelow,  whose  "Journal," 
privately  printed  many  years  afterward,  is  hard  to  find  now- 
adays. In  1805  also  came  Robert  Sutcliff,  the  first  of  sev- 
eral members  of  the  Society  of  Friends  who,  visiting  this 
region  on  missions  of  philanthropy  and  devotion  to  the  In- 
dian, have  left  exceedingly  interesting  narratives  of  what 
they  saw  and  experienced  hereabouts.  SutclifFs  book, 
"Travels  in  Some  Parts  of  North  America,"  was  not  pub- 
lished until  1812,  but  it  was  in  November,  1805,  that  he 
reached  Buffalo  on  horseback  and  put  up  at  Crow's  tavern. 
Later  he  was  a  guest  of  Joseph  Ellicott  and  his  valuable 
narrative  records  many  names  of  settlers,  taverns,  etc., 
which,  perhaps,  would  be  sought  for  without  finding  in  other 
records. 

The  first  decade  of  the  century  brought  hither  at  least 
one  other  book-writing  traveller,  Christian  Schultz,  Jr., 
whose  "Travels,"  etc.,  in  the  years  1807-8,  record  American 
wanderings  of  some  six  thousand  miles.  He  came  to  Fort 
Niagara  in  August,  1807,  by  boat  on  Lake  Ontario.  He 
writes  at  length  of  the  cataract  and  of  all  that  he  saw 
throughout  the  length  of  the  Niagara.  Coming  to  the  little 
town  at  the  foot  of  Lake  Erie,  he  rested  here  for  a  time  and 
recorded  his  impressions  as  follows : 

"Buffaloe  is  a  small  village  situated  on  Buffaloe  Creek 
about  three  miles  after  you  pass  the  outlet  of  Lake  Erie,  on 
your  left  hand  side.  I  was  present  at  the  annual  distribu- 
tion of  the  presents  to  the  six  nations  of  Indians,  most  of 
whom  now  live  within  the  British  territories.  There  were 
about  five  hundred  assembled  together  on  this  occasion, 
some  of  whom  were  painted  and  feathered  off  fine  enough. 
They  had  likewise  a  council  meeting,  for  the  purpose  of 


28  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

receiving  and  considering  certain  overtures  that  had  been 
made  to  them  by  some  hostile  Indians,  'to  take  up  the  toma- 
hawk against  the  United  States' ;  but  they  wisely  deter- 
mined to  remain  neuter  in  case  of  hostilities  between 
America  and  England. 

"After  their  business  was  settled,  they  formed  them- 
selves into  parties  at  ball-playing,  and  running  races  for 
prizes  given  by  the  State.  Their  manner  of  ball-playing  is 
very  similar  to  what  you  have  seen  by  the  name  of  hurley; 
but,  instead  of  the  curved  hickory  used  on  that  occasion, 
they  have  a  long  curved  racket,  strung  with  deer  sinews, 
with  which  they  can  strike  the  ball  to  an  astonishing  dis- 
tance. Whenever  the  ball  lodged  among  the  crowd  of 
players,  you  would  have  supposed  there  was  a  bloody 
battle  going  on,  as  every  one  struck  pell-mell  together  with 
their  rackets  not  in  the  least  heeding  whom  he  knocked  on 
the  head ;  but,  whenever  a  lucky  stroke  drove  the  ball  near 
to  the  goal,  you  would  have  thought  hell  itself  had  broke 
loose,  for  such  a  hideous  yell  and  screaming  was  instantly 
set  up  as  baffles  all  my  attempts  at  a  description. 

"I  was  much  amused  by  the  pride  and  gallantry  displayed 
by  one  of  the  victors  on  receiving,  as  a  prize,  a  light  calico 
shirt.  As  soon  as  he  received  it  he  put  it  on,  and,  after 
viewing  himself  for  a  moment,  strutted  through  the  crowd 
to  display  his  finery.  In  a  few  minutes  he  returned  to  a 
circle  of  women,  when  he  pulled  off  his  prize  and  put  it 
upon  one  of  the  lady  squaws,  who  soon  experienced  the 
value  of  this  mark  of  distinction,  by  attracting  the  admira- 
tion of  some,  and  exciting  the  envy  of  more,  among  the 
crowd  of  females  around  her." 

The  succeeding  decade,  i8n-'2O,  brought  into  our  region 
thrice  as  many  book-writing  travelers  as  had  the  first  ten 
years.  They  included  British  tourists,  missionaries,  one 
French  artist,  one  or  two  wandering  Americans,  and  the 
President  of  the  United  States. 

In  1811  our  literary  visitor  was  John  Melish,  whose 
portly  volume  of  ''Travels  through  the  United  States  of 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  29 

America,"  published  in  London  in  1818,  was  for  many  years 
a  standard  and  authoritative  work.  He  reached  Buffalo  in 
October  of  the  year  named  and  reported  that  the  village 
was  "now  computed  at  500."  His  pages  are  very  good  for 
miscellaneous  data,  especially  in  regard  to  the  Indians  and 
conditions  up  and  down  the  river. 

We  now  come  to  the  period  of  warfare,  during  which 
there  were  practically  no  tourist  visitors  to  the  region.  One 
devoted  missionary,  the  Rev.  Charles  Giles,  came  in  1812, 
although  it  was  not  until  1844  that  the  record  of  his  visit 
was  published.  By  no  means  should  the  narrative  of  Levi 
Beardsley's  visit — visits,  rather — be  overlooked.  He  was  a 
man  of  note  in  New  York  State  in  his  day,  a  member  of  the 
Senate  for  eight  years,  and  its  President  in  1838.  His  first 
visit  to  Buffalo  and  Niagara  was  in  1815.  Buffalo  "had 
scarcely  begun  to  build  up ;  .  .  .  in  fact  it  was  nothing." 
On  Chippewa  battle-field  he  was  sickened  by  the  stench 
from  mounds  where  the  dead  had  been  deposited.  He 
wrote  well  of  the  Falls,  but  with  particular  interest  of 
Grand  Island  where  in  1825  he  made  large  purchase  of 
lands.  His  "Reminiscences,"  published  in  New  York  in 
1852  contain  much  of  history,  description  and  anecdote  re- 
lating to  our  region. 

Omitting  the  war  literature  I  discover  no  other  traveler 
who  wrote  books  until  1816,  in  which  year  Lieutenant 
Francis  Hall  of  the  I4th  Light  Dragoons,  visited  Niagara 
Falls  and  Buffalo.  I  find  him  an  agreeable,  sensible  writer. 
He  notes  that  "the  name  of  the  Horseshoe,  hitherto  given 
to  the  larger  fall,  is  no  longer  applicable :  it  has  become  an 
acute  angle."  It  undoubtedly  had  been  angular  for  many 
years  before  Hall,  though  long  after  him  many  visitors  were 
unable  to  see  it  that  way.  Buffalo  he  found  "not  merely  a 
flourishing  village,  but  a  considerable  town,  with  shops  and 


30  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

hotels  which  might  anywhere  be  called  handsome,  and  in 
this  part  of  the  country,  astonishing."  This,  it  will  be  re- 
marked, was  but  three  years  after  the  destruction  of  the 
town. 

A  visiting  author  of  1817  was  Joseph  Sanson,  a  distin- 
guished member  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society  who 
toured  through  the  region  and  wrote  his  "Sketches  of  Lower 
Canada,"  etc.,  dedicated  to  DeWitt  Clinton. 

A  more  notable  visitor  in  that  year  was  President  Mon- 
roe, who  arrived  at  Fort  Niagara  early  in  August  and  pro- 
ceeded up  the  river  to  Buffalo  in  the  course  of  an  extended 
tour  through  the  country,  the  record  of  which  was  written 
by  S.  Putnam  Waldo,  his  secretary.  There  is  nothing  in 
the  record  of  President  Monroe's  visit  to  the  Niagara  re- 
gion that  need  detain  us.  He  was  received  in  Buffalo  by  a 
deputation  of  citizens,  to  whom  he  made  a  speech ;  but  that 
speech  is  not  preserved  in  Waldo's  pages. 

This  same  year,  too,  brought  hither  a  wandering  French- 
man, Monsieur  E.  Montule,  whose  narrative  in  English  was 
published  in  1821,  under  the  title  of  "Journey  to  North 
America  and  the  West  Indies."  It  contains  a  letter,  dated 
"Buffaloe  3ist  July,  1817,"  in  which  the  author  sets  forth 
his  experiences  in  visiting  the  nearby  Indians  with  a  resi- 
dent Frenchman  named  "Despares."  This  I  take  it  was 
John  Despard,  whose  name  is  usually  recorded  as  that  of 
Buffalo's  pioneer  baker;  he  was  by  no  means  an  unknown 
character  in  the  early  years  of  Buffalo.  Montule  adds  a 
graphic  account  of  his  adventures  at  Niagara  Falls. 

A  far  more  valuable  work  is  the  "Sketches  of  Upper 
Canada,"  etc.,  by  John  Howison,  a  British  subject  resident 
for  some  years  in  Canada.  His  visit  was  in  1818.  Traces 
of  warfare  were  still  fresh  on  the  banks  of  the  Niagara  and 
he  naturally  devotes  a  portion  of  his  pages  to  them.  Note 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  31 

should  be  made  of  the  "Journal"  of  Sarah  Rowland,  who 
with  her  husband  drove  to  the  Niagara  from  New  York  and 
back  in  a  carriage  in  the  summer  of  this  year,  the  tour  oc- 
cupying some  two  months.  Mrs.  Rowland's  journal  re- 
cords little  regarding  our  region  which  is  of  consequence. 

A  singular  book  is  the  "Pedestrious  Tour  of  4000  Miles," 
etc.,  by  Estwick  Evans.  This  eccentric  but  enterprising 
New  Englander  walked  from  Concord,  N.  H.,  to  Niagara 
and  so  on  over  a  long  route.  His  narrative  is  clumsily  writ- 
ten, with  some  evidence  of  conceit  and  occasional  display  of 
ignorance ;  but  he  was  a  fair  observer  and  saw  many  things 
especially  among  the  Indians  which  could  not  be  seen  later, 
and  is  entitled  to  a  place  among  the  authors  of  1818. 

In  marked  contrast  with  the  unlettered  Evans  is  William 
Darby,  an  accomplished  member  of  the  New  York  His- 
torical Society,  who,  in  this  same  year  of  1818,  journeyed 
from  New  York  to  Detroit,  making  a  considerable  sojourn 
en  the  Niagara.  His  "Tour,"  etc.,  is  one  of  the  best  ac- 
counts we  have  of  Buffalo  and  vicinity  at  that  time.  At 
Niagara  he  notes  that  a  "marked  annual  increase  in  visitors 
is  to  be  observed" ;  the  tourist  procession  had  fairly  begun 
in  1818.  Still  another  author  of  this  same  year  was  John 
M.  Duncan,  a  Scotchman,  author  of  "Travels  through  part 
of  the  United  States  and  Canada  in  1818-19."  His  two- 
volume  work  published  in  Glasgow  in  1823  is  still  good 
reading.  He  seems  to  have  made  at  least  two  visits  to  Buf- 
falo, which  he  reports  as  a  "busy  little  town  of  600  inhabi- 
tants." His  pages  on  Niagara,  the  Indians  and  the  mission 
work  among  them  are  very  full  and  valuable. 

The  year  1819  brought  to  the  banks  of  our  river  two 
authors  of  considerable  note  in  their  day.  One,  Miss 
Frances  Wright,  is  well  known  even  now  by  students  of  so- 
cial reform  for  her  devotion  to  what  she  regarded  as  human 


32  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

betterment  in  her  day.  Her  book,  "Views  of  Society  and 
Manners  in  America,"  was  long  the  subject  of  heated  criti- 
cism and  discussion  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  She  was 
one  of  the  earliest  of  many  distinguished  travelers  who  were 
entertained  at  the  hospitable  home  of  the  Wadsworth  fam- 
ily in  the  Genesee  Valley.  She  has  left  us  a  graphic  picture 
of  Niagara  and  vicinity.  The  other  literary  visitor  of  this 
year  was  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  E.  Howitt, 
who  toured  into  the  region  to  visit  the  Indians  and  to  report 
on  the  work  which  was  being  done  among  them  by  the 
Quakers.  In  a  letter  dated  "Buffalo,  8th  month,  9th,  1819," 
he  records  many  things  now  of  interest  to  the  student  of 
history  regarding  our  region.  In  May,  1819,  came  also 
William  Tell  Harris,  author  of  a  "Tour"  published  in  1821. 
In  1820,  came  Adam  Hodgson,  author  of  "Letters  from 
North  America,"  published  in  two  volumes,  1824.  He  was 
£.  good,  sensible  observer ;  and  in  a  chapter,  dated  Niagara, 
2d  August,  1820,  he  has  given  us  one  of  the  best  early  ac- 
counts of  conditions  at  the  great  cataract.  William  Dalton's 
"Travels,"  and  James  Flint's  "Letters  from  America,"  both 
record  visits  to  the  Niagara  in  1820.  Flint  came  to  Buffalo 
from  the  West  on  the  pioneer  steamboat,  "Walk-in-the- 
Water." 

Still  more  literary  visitors  came  in  the  decade  ending 
1830,  but  most  of  them  fortunately  need  not  detain  us.  In 
1821  P.  Stansbury,  in  the  course  of  a  walk  of  2300  miles, 
reached  Niagara  Falls.  He  was,  perhaps,  willing  to  rest; 
at  any  rate,  he  lingered  in  the  vicinity  long  enough  to  make 
minute  record  of  many  things  now  of  interest.  His  little 
book,  "A  Pedestrian  Tour  of  2300  Miles  in  North  America," 
devotes  fifty  pages  to  the  Niagara  region,  not  the  least  feat- 
ure of  it  being  the  crude  woodcuts,  one  of  Niagara  fort  by 
A.  Anderson,  said  to  be  the  first  American  wood  engraver— 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  33 

a  claim  also  made  for  Peter  Maverick,  among  whose  pic- 
tures, on  wood,  is  a  Niagara  Falls. 

Catherine  M.  Sedgwick,  who  made  the  "grand  tour"  in 
1821,  wrote  graphically  from  Buffalo,  June  29th,  on  what 
she  discerned  as  the  homesickness  of  settlers  from  New 
England.  In  a  long  Niagara  letter  she  reports  her  interview 
with  a  Yorkshireman,  a  Niagara  settler,  who  had  a  real 
complaint : 

"When  he  laid  in  his  bed  he  could  never  tell  when  it 
rained  nor  when  it  thundered,  for  there  was  always  a 
dripping  from  the  dampness,  and  the  deafening  roar  of  the 
fall ;  and  then  his  poor  cattle,  in  winter,  were  always  covered 
with  icicles.  It  was  a  mighty  fine  thing  to  come  and  see, 
but  we  should  be  sick  enough  of  it  if  we  had  as  much  of  it 
as  he  had.  'II  n'y  a  rien  de  beau  que  I'utile.' " 

An  anonymous  work,  "A  Summer  Month,  or  Recollec- 
tions of  a  visit  to  the  Falls  of  Niagara  and  the  Lakes  in 
1822,"  is  understood  to  have  been  written  by  a  Mr.  Mat- 
thews. He  had  scholarly  accomplishments  and  a  poetic 
temperament;  adorns  his  account  of  Niagara  with  quota- 
tions in  Greek  and  from  the  Scriptures ;  and  on  the  whole 
has  given  us  a  fine  and  useful  picture  of  what  he  saw.  An- 
other anonymous  work,  "Excursion  through  the  United 
States  and  Canada,"  by  "An  English  Gentleman,"  also  re- 
cords a  visit  to  Buffalo  and  Niagara  in  this  same  year. 
Its  author  was  Captain  William  Newnham  Blaney.  The 
"Memoirs  of  William  Forster,"  published  in  two  volumes  in 
London  in  1865,  contain  the  narrative  of  this  Quaker's  visit 
to  Niagara  in  1823.  Edward  Allen  Talbot's  "Five  Years' 
Residence  in  the  Canadas,"  etc.,  has  a  long  Niagara  chapter, 
of  date  1823. 

An  English  naturalist  and  traveler  whose  works  were 
esteemed,  was  Charles  Waterton.  His  name  would  hardly 
be  associated  with  the  Niagara  to  judge  from  the  title  of 


34  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

his  book,  "Wanderings  in  South  America,"  etc.,  yet  his  wan- 
derings brought  him  here  in  1824.  Perhaps  because  of  his 
wide  experience  as  a  traveler,  he  did  not  take  his  scenery 
very  seriously.  He  was  much  more  interested  in  people. 
"Words,"  he  says,  "can  hardly  do  justice  to  the  unaffected 
ease  and  elegance  of  the  American  ladies  who  visit  the  Falls 
of  Niagara,"  and  he  laments  with  some  humor  the  fact  that 
a  sore  toe  prevented  him  from  dancing  with  them. 

I  must  be  content  with  merely  mentioning  an  attractive 
little  volume  published  in  Aarau,  entitled  "Mein  Besuch 
Amerika's  in  Sommer  1824  .  .  .  ein  Plug  .  .  .  zum 
Niagarafall,"  in  which  the  practically  anonymous  author, 
"Von  C.  v.  R.,"  tells  of  his  visit  to  the  Niagara  in  1824. 
Another  German  tourist,  by  no  means  anonymous,  came 
the  next  year.  This  was  Bernhard,  Duke  of  Saxe- Weimar 
Eisenach.  The  original  German  edition  of  his  book  of 
American  travels  appeared  at  Weimar  in  1828;  there  are 
several  editions  in  German  and  English.  The  author  came 
by  canal  to  Black  Rock  in  1825,  and  proceeded  thence  by 
stage  to  Buffalo.  At  the  Falls,  of  which  he  gives  elaborate 
description,  he  took  special  note  of  the  phenomenon  of  the 
burning  spring.  He  was  entertained  with  his  suite  by  Sir 
Perigrine  Maitland  at  his  once  famous  country  seat  at  Stam- 
ford, near  the  Whirlpool. 

We  now  come  to  an  important  year  in  the  chronology  of 
our  region — 1825.  Throughout  the  years  of  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Erie  Canal  public  attention  had  been  more  and 
more  directed  towards  Western  New  York,  its  attractions 
and  opportunities.  It  was  natural  that  with  the  opening  of 
this  new  highway  of  travel  visitors  should  flock  to  see  Niag- 
ara, Buffalo,  and  the  West,  much  no  doubt  as  visitors  will 
flock  to  the  Panama  Canal  to  take  note  of  that  new  and  ex- 
traordinary highway  of  travel. 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  85 

The  most  distinguished  visitor  to  our  region  in  this  year 
of  travel  was  Lafayette.  The  record  of  his  visit  was  made 
by  his  secretary,  A.  Lavasseur,  in  whose  volumes,  entitled 
"Lafayette  en  Amerique,"  is  to  be  found  one  of  the  best 
chapters  we  have  for  intimate  detail  of  conditions  in  Buf- 
falo at  the  time.  During  his  sojourn  at  Niagara,  Lafayette 
was  the  guest  of  General  Porter,  and  received  hereabouts, 
as  everywhere  on  his  tour,  many  testimonials  of  the  great 
affection  which  America  had  for  him.  At  least  two  edi- 
tions of  Lavasseur's  narrative  have  been  published:  the 
original  one  in  Paris,  in  1829,  with  an  English  translation 
published  in  Philadelphia  in  the  same  year.  I  note  one  other 
distinguished  visitor  in  1825.  This  was  Joseph  Story,  As- 
sociate Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
Professor  of  Law  at  Harvard,  etc.  Story  came  to  the  Ni- 
agara in  July  of  1825.  He  was  entertained  by  General 
Porter,  who  escorted  him  to  Fort  Erie  and  to  other  battle- 
fields of  the  vicinity.  In  the  excellent  "Life  and  Letters  of 
Joseph  Story,"  edited  by  his  son,  published  in  London  in 
1851,  the  student  will  find  many  graphic  pages  setting  forth 
this  early  visit  to  our  region. 

The  year  1826  gives  us  the  visit  of  an  officer  of  the  Royal 
British  Navy,  the  Honorable  Fitzgerald  de  Roos,  whose 
"Personal  Narrative  of  Travels  in  the  United  States  and 
Canada  in  1826,"  was  dedicated  to  the  Duke  of  Clarence 
and  ran  through  several  editions.  Like  most  other  visitors, 
this  author  felt  called  upon  to  analyze  his  emotions  when 
contemplating  the  cataract.  He  records  that  he  experienced 
a  depression  of  spirits  by  the  magic  influence  of  this  stu- 
pendous fall.  Others,  it  will  be  noted,  experienced  exhilara- 
tion. Indeed,  these  book-writing  visitors  have  run  the 
gamut  of  emotional  experience.  De  Roos  was  also  a  guest 
of  Sir  Perigrine  Maitland.  Another  visitor  of  1826  was 


36  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

Carl  August  Gosselman,  in  whose  two-volume  work,  "Resa 
i  Norra  Amerika,"  published  at  Nykoping  in  1835,  the 
reader  of  Scandinavian  will  rejoice  to  find  a  long  Niagara 
chapter. 

Comparatively  few  of  our  British  visitors  have  taken  the 
trouble  to  preserve  their  anonymity,  but  in  1827  there  came 
to  us  a  vigorous  writer  content  to  style  himself  merely  "A 
British  Subject,"  whose  book,  "Tour  through  United  States 
and  Canada,"  published  in  London,  in  1828,  is  well  worth 
reading  today.  As  other  British  writers  have  done,  he 
found  many  opportunities  to  ridicule  the  Americans,  and 
professed  to  be  shocked  at  finding  an  hotel  at  Niagara  con- 
ducted by  a  General.  Frontier  conditions  of  travel  dis- 
pleased him:  "The  23  miles  from  thence  to  Buffalo  is  a 
long  and  truly  infamous  road,  made  of  trunks  of  trees  and 
not  in  sight  of  the  river,  but  through  a  thick  wilderness  in 
which  black  bears,  wolves  and  rattlesnakes  are  not  infre- 
quent." Of  Buffalo,  however,  as  he  saw  it  in  1827,  he  had  a 
good  word,  predicting  that  the  place  "will  certainly  become 
one  of  the  most  important  towns  in  America."  At  Niagara, 
too,  he  struck  the  right  reflection  when  he  perceived  that  the 
"grandeur  of  the  scene  before  me  becomes  more  perceptible 
to  my  senses  the  longer  I  am  acquainted  with  it."  A  better 
known  writer  visiting  us  in  the  same  year,  was  Captain 
Basil  Hall  of  the  Royal  Navy,  author  of  "Travels  in  North 
America,"  in  three  volumes.  Captain  Hall,  though  in  his 
day  subject  to  much  criticism,  was  a  thoroughly  good  writer, 
frank,  full,  honest  in  statement,  clear-sighted,  a  good  ob- 
server, and,  I  should  judge  from  a  careful  reading  of  his 
pages,  a  thoroughly  sensible  and  honest  man.  I  count  his 
book  one  of  the  most  valuable  as  a  record  of  that  time. 

In  1828,  James  Stuart,  a  conscientious,  scrupulous 
Scotchman,  came  to  Buffalo  in  the  course  of  a  three-years' 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  37 

sojourn  in  North  America.  His  three-volume  work,  pub- 
lished in  Edinburgh  in  1833,  was  one  of  the  most  full  and 
trustworthy  reports  of  American  conditions  in  the  early 
years  of  the  century. 

The  year  1830  sent  to  us  at  least  three  English  authors, 
each  of  whom  published  a  more  or  less  readable  account  of 
his  American  wanderings.  One  of  these  was  C.  Colton,  who 
wrote  a  long  Niagara  chapter  and  a  most  remarkable  one  on 
the  Whirlpool.  Another  was  S.  A.  Farrall,  author  of  "A 
Ramble  of  6000  Miles  through  the  United  States  and  Can- 
ada," and  a  third  was  John  Fowler,  a  specialist  on  agricul- 
ture, whose  "Journal  of  a  Tour  in  the  State  of  New  York" 
in  1830,  brought  him  to  Buffalo,  where  he  says : 

"I  was  diverted  in  passing  along  Main-street  at  observing 
the  extreme  singularity  of  the  names  over  the  shop  doors, 
&c. ;  a  circumstance,  indeed,  I  have  often  noticed  else- 
where; and,  in  addition,  you  will  mostly  see  portrayed 
upon  a  sign  suspended  over,  or  at  the  side  of  the  door,  some 
touch  of  the  profession  practised  within;  for  instance,  at 
a  doctor's,  I  saw  a  mortar  and  pestle;  at  a  bookseller's, 
two  large  folio  volumes;  at  a  Miss  Jeremiah's,  a  most 
exquisitely  trimmed  bonnet ;  and  at  a  fancy  dyer's,  a  board, 
upon  which  was  announced  the  character  of  their  establish- 
ment, had  every  letter  painted  with  different  coloured 
paint; — so  much  for  customs." 

A  thought  must  be  given  to  Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  who 
was  one  of  the  earliest  Americans  of  genius  to  write  sedately 
and  with  insight  of  the  Falls.  His  visit  was  in  the  early 
3o's,  when  the  tourist  approach  was  by  stage  via  Lewiston. 
"Never,"  he  says,  "did  a  pilgrim  approach  Niagara  with 
deeper  enthusiasm  than  mine. 

"I  had  lingered  away  from  it,  and  wandered  to  other 
scenes,  because  my  treasury  of  anticipated  enjoyments, 
comprising  all  the  wonders  of  the  world,  had  nothing  else 


38  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

so  magnificent,  and  I  was  loth  to  exchange  the  pleasures  of 
hope  for  those  of  memory  so  soon.  At  length  the  day 
came.  The  stage-coach,  with  a  Frenchman  and  myself  on 
the  back  seat,  had  already  left  Lewiston,  and  in  less  than 
an  hour  would  set  us  down  in  Manchester  [Niagara  Falls 
village] .  I  began  to  listen  for  the  roar  of  the  cataract,  and 
trembled  with  a  sensation  like  dread,  as  the  moment  drew 
nigh  when  its  voice  of  ages  must  roll,  for  the  first  time,  on 
my  ear.  The  French  gentleman  stretched  himself  from 
the  window,  and  expressed  loud  admiration,  while,  by  a 
sudden  impulse,  I  threw  myself  back  and  closed  my  eyes." 

He  tells  at  length  how  he  arrived  at  the  hotel,  dined, 
smoked,  loitered  over  this  and  that  inconsequential  thing, 
illogically  postponing  the  moment  of  actually  beholding  the 
scene.  Finally  he  strolls  about  Goat  Island,  conies  upon  the 
great  spectacle,  views  it  from  different  points,  and  then, 
asking  himself,  "Were  my  long  desires  fulfilled?"  analyzes 
his  emotions  as  follows : 

"Oh,  that  I  had  never  heard  of  Niagara  till  I  beheld  it  I 
Blessed  were  the  wanderers  of  old,  who  heard  its  deep  roar 
sounding  through  the  woods,  as  the  summons  to  an  un- 
known wonder,  and  approached  its  awful  brink,  in  all  the 
freshness  of  native  feeling.  Had  its  own  mysterious  voice 
been  the  first  to  warn  me  of  its  existence  then  indeed  I 
might  have  knelt  down  and  worshiped.  But  I  had  come 
thither,  haunted  with  a  vision  of  foam  and  fury,  and  dizzy 
cliffs,  and  an  ocean  tumbling  down  out  of  the  sky — a  scene, 
in  short,  which  Nature  had  too  much  good  taste  and  calm 
simplicity  to  realize.  My  mind  had  struggled  to  adapt 
these  false  conceptions  to  the  reality,  and  finding  the  effort 
vain,  a  wretched  sense  of  disappointment  weighed  me  down. 
I  climbed  the  precipice,  and  threw  myself  on  the  earth, 
feeling  that  I  was  unworthy  to  look  at  the  Great  Falls,  and 
careless  about  beholding  them  again." 

He  did,  however,  behold  them  again  and  studied  them 
to  good  purpose.  Besides  his  essay,  "My  Visit  to  Niagara," 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  39 

he  weaves  Niagara  episodes  into  the  "Journal  of  a  Solitary 
Man,"  and  perhaps  into  other  sketches,  to  be  found  in  his 
collected  works. 

One  of  the  earliest  Spanish  tourists  to  visit  our  region 
was  Don  Lorenzo  de  Zavala,  whose  "Viage  a  los  Estados- 
Unidos  del  Norte  de  America,"  published  in  Paris  in  1834, 
records  the  author's  impressions  of  Buffalo — he  was  here 
in  July,  1830 — Black  Rock,  Waterloo  (Fort  Erie),  Chip- 
pewa,  Niagara  Falls,  etc.,  down  to  Fort  Niagara. 

We  now  come  to  the  decade  which  produced  more  books 
about  Niagara  than  any  other  of  the  century.  From  1831 
to  1840  I  note  forty-three  works  of  American  travel,  touch- 
ing our  region,  thirty-one  of  which  were  first  published  in 
London.  Could  anything  more  forcibly  illustrate,  by  con- 
trast, the  paucity  of  American  literary  production — at  any 
rate  of  the  descriptive  sort — at  that  period!  I  could  dwell 
at  length  and  with  pleasure  on  many  of  these  books,  for  the 
list  includes  several  extraordinary  productions ;  but  my  re- 
view shall  be  of  the  briefest. 

Mrs.  Frances  Trollope  came  to  see  us  in  1831.  Her 
"Domestic  Manners  of  the  Americans"  set  this  country  by 
the  ears  for  more  than  one  decade.  Although  the  dear  lady 
was  a  very  shrew  in  her  treatment  of  Americans,  at  Niagara 
she  was  for  the  most  part  sweetly  feminine  and  appreciative. 
I  know  of  no  more  striking  proof  of  the  majesty  of  Niagara 
than  that  it  tamed  Mrs.  Trollope.  In  Buffalo  she  was  more 
her  usual  self : 

"Of  all  the  thousand  and  one  towns  I  saw  in  America, 
I  think  Buffalo  is  the  queerest  looking;  it  is  not  quite  so 
wild  as  Lockport,  but  all  the  buildings  have  the  appearance 
of  having  been  run  up  in  a  hurry,  though  everything  has  an 
air  of  great  pretension ;  there  are  porticos,  columns,  domes, 
and  colonnades,  but  all  in  wood.  Everybody  tells  you  there, 
as  in  all  their  new-born  towns,  and  everybody  believes,  that 


40  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

their  improvement,  and  their  progression  are  more  rapid, 
more  wonderful,  than  the  earth  ever  before  witnessed; 
while  to  me,  the  only  wonder  is,  how  so  many  thousands, 
nay  millions  of  persons,  can  be  found,  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  who  can  be  content  so  to  live.  Surely  this  country 
may  be  said  to  spread  rather  than  to  rise. 

"The  Eagle  Hotel,  an  immense  wooden  fabric,  has  all 
the  pretension  of  a  splendid  establishment,  but  its  monstrous 
corridors,  low  ceilings,  and  intricate  chambers,  gave  me 
the  feeling  of  a  catacomb  rather  than  a  house.  We  arrived 
after  the  table  d'hote  tea-drinking  was  over,  and  supped 
comfortably  enough  with  a  gentleman,  who  accompanied 
us  from  the  Falls ;  but  the  next  morning  we  breakfasted  in 
a  long,  narrow  room,  with  a  hundred  persons,  and  any 
thing  less  like  comfort  can  hardly  be  imagined." 

There  is  no  better  book  for  a  bumptious  American  to 
read,  even  today,  than  Mrs.  Trollope's.  If  he  can  peruse  it 
and  keep  a  serene  temper,  he  is  fit  for  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  Mrs.  Trollope  gave  us  a  dose  of  bad  medicine,  but 
it  was  good  for  us. 

Her  fame  rather  overshadows  that  of  Captain  J.  E.  Alex- 
ander of  the  42d  Royal  Highlanders,  F.  R.  G.  S.,  and  much 
else  besides,  whose  "Trans- Atlantic  Sketches"  (London, 
1833)  belongs  to  Niagara  letters.  He  gives  a  long,  graphic 
account  of  Francis  Abbott,  the  hermit  of  Niagara ;  as  also 
does  F.  W.  P.  Greenwood,  D.  D.,  in  whose  "Miscellaneous 
Writings"  (Boston,  1846)  will  be  found  a  long  account  of  a 
visit  to  Niagara  in  July,  1831. 

In  1832,  I  note  the  following  visitors  to  our  region,  who 
wrote  books  about  us:  Rev.  Isaac  Fidler  ("Observations," 
etc.),  a  missionary,  resident  for  a  time  at  "Thornhill,  Yonge 
Street,  near  Toronto";  Godfrey  T.  Vigne  ("Six  months  in 
America"),  who  contributes  his  quota  to  the  cheerful  non- 
sense of  Niagara,  with  a  really  fine  frontispiece  of  the  Falls, 
from  his  own  drawing;  E.  T.  Coke  ("A  Subaltern's  Fur- 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS..  41 

lough"),  a  lieutenant  of  the  45th  Regiment  who  came  to 
Buffalo  in  August  of  this  year  by  canal,  and  studied  the 
'"bustling"  town,  Indian  reservations,  battlefields,  etc.,  in 
several  excellent  chapters;  Joseph  Bouchette  ("The  British 
Dominions  in  North  America"),  whose  two- volume  quarto 
work,  dedicated  to  William  IV.,  contains  a  careful  topo- 
graphical description  of  the  region ;  and  John  Eyre,  whose 
"Beauties  of  American  Travel,"  are  strongly  evangelical. 
Of  about  this  period  was  the  visit  of  Prince  Maximilien  von 
Wied-Neuwied,  whose  elaborate  "Voyage"  contains  a  Ni- 
agara chapter;  it  is,  in  the  original  edition,  a  very  scarce 
book. 

In  the  next  year — 1833 — at  least  eight  bookwriters  ar- 
rived: C.  D.  Arfwedson  ("The  United  States  and  Can- 
ada") came  by  canal  to  Buffalo;  experienced  the  pleasures 
of  stage  travel  on  the  Niagara  frontier,  and  wrote  at  length 
of  what  he  saw — fortunately  so,  for  he  was  a  good  ob- 
server; so,  in  a  way,  was  E.  S.  Abdy  ("Journal")  who 
visited  General  Wadsworth  at  Geneseo  and  Red  Jacket's 
widow  on  the  Buffalo  Reservation ;  and  who,  at  the  Falls, 
objected  strongly  to  the  work  of  one  who  had  built  "a 
wooden  bridge  and  a  circular  building,  like  a  shot  tower, 
directly  over  one  of  the  falls.  .  .  .  The  name  of  this  Van- 
dal is  I  believe,  Porter"!  Captain  Hamilton,  author  of 
"Cyril  Thornton,"  notes  in  his  "Men  and  Manners  in  Amer- 
ica," that  the  epithet  of  "Horseshoe"  as  applied  to  one  of 
the  Niagara  cataracts,  is  no  longer  applicable,  as  it  is  a  semi- 
hexagon — yet  other  people  have  persisted  in  seeing  it  as  a 
horseshoe,  for  years  after !  Hamilton's  pages  are  useful  to 
the  student  of  anti-Masonry  in  Western  New  York.  A 
bright  chapter  on  Niagara  is  contained  in  the  "Impressions 
of  America"  of  Tyrone  Power,  a  gifted,  popular  actor,  who 
found  himself  in  Buffalo  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1833,  when 


42  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

the  streets  were  full  of  tipsy  Indians.  In  this  year  N.  P. 
Willis  paid  one  of  his  visits  to  Niagara  in  the  interests  of 
American  scenery;  and  Patrick  Sherriff,  a  literary  farmer, 
making  his  "Tour  through  North  America,"  wrote  that  "the 
banks  of  the  Niagara  from  the  Ferry  to  the  Pavilion  is  the 
loveliest  and  most  interesting  portion  of  the  globe" !  John 
Neal,  a  poet  of  the  Niagara,  tells  in  his  "Wandering  Recol- 
lections" of  his  Niagara  experiences  in  1833. 

The  "Journal"  of  Frances  Anne  Butler — the  lovely 
Fanny  Kemble,  adored  by  an  earlier  generation — is  by  no 
means  least  among  the  books  of  this  year,  1833.  Approach- 
ing Buffalo  in  July,  by  canal,  she  tells  us  how,  near  Lock- 
port,  "I  saw  a  meek-eyed,  yellowish-white  cart-horse,  stand- 
ing with  a  man's  saddle  on  his  back.  The  opportunity  was 
irresistible,  and  the  desire  too — I  had  not  backed  a  horse 
for  so  long.  So  I  got  up  upon  the  amazed  quadruped, 
woman's  fashion,  and  took  a  gallop  through  the  fields,  with 
infinite  risk  of  falling  off,  and  proportionate  satisfaction." 
Her  journal  continues : 

"We  reached  Lewistown  about  noon,  and  anxious 
enquiries  were  instituted  as  to  how  our  luggage  was  to  be 
forwarded,  when  on  the  other  side;  for  we  were  exclusive 
extras;  and  for  creatures  so  above  common  fellowship 
there  is  no  accommodation  in  this  levelling  land.  A  ferry 
and  a  ferry-boat,  however,  it  appeared,  there  were,  and 
thither  we  made  our  way.  While  we  were  waiting  for  the 
boat,  I  climbed  out  on  the  branches  of  a  huge  oak,  which 
grew  over  the  banks  of  the  river,  which  here  rise  nearly  a 
hundred  feet  high.  Thus  comfortably  perched,  like  a  bird, 
'twixt  heaven  and  earth,'  I  copied  off  some  verses  which  I 
had  scrawled  just  before  leaving  Lockport.  The  ferry- 
boat being  at  length  procured,  we  got  into  it.  The  day  was 
sultry;  the  heat  intolerable.  The  water  of  this  said  river 
Niagara  is  of  a  most  peculiar  colour,  like  a  turquoise  when 
it  turns  green.  It  was  like  a  thick  stream  of  verdigris,  full 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  43 

of  pale,  milky  streaks,  whirls,  eddies,  and  counter-currents, 
and  looked  as  if  it  were  running  up  by  one  bank,  and  down 
by  the  other.  I  sat  in  the  sun,  on  the  floor  of  the  boat, 
revising  my  verses.  .  .  .  Arrived  on  the  other  side, 
i.  e.,  Canada,  there  was  a  second  pause,  as  to  how  we  were 
to  get  conveyed  to  the  Falls.  .  .  .  An  uneasy-looking, 
rickety  cart  without  springs  was  the  sole  conveyance  we 
could  obtain,  and  into  this  we  packed  ourselves.  .  .  . 
The  sound  of  the  cataract  is,  they  say,  heard  within  fifteen 
miles  when  the  wind  sets  favourably;  today,  however, 
there  was  no  wind;  the  whole  air  was  breathless  with  the 
heat  of  midsummer,  and,  though  we  stopped  our  waggon 
once  or  twice  to  listen  as  we  approached,  all  was  profound 
silence.  There  was  no  motion  in  the  leaves  of  the  trees, 
not  a  cloud  sailing  in  the  sky;  everything  was  as  though 
in  a  bright,  warm  death.  When  we  were  within  about 
three  miles  of  the  Falls,  just  before  entering  the  village  of 

Niagara,  stopped  the  waggon;   and  then  we  heard 

distinctly,  though  far  off,  the  voice  of  the  mighty  cataract. 
Looking  over  the  woods,  which  appeared  to  overhang  the 
course  of  the  river,  we  beheld  one  silver  cloud  rising  slowly 
into  the  sky, — the  everlasting  incense  of  the  waters.  A 
perfect  frenzy  of  impatience  seized  upon  me :  I  could  have 
set  off  and  run  the  whole  way;  and  when  at  length  the 
carriage  stopped  at  the  door  of  the  Niagara  house,  waiting 

neither    for    my    father,    D ,  nor  ,  I  rushed 

through  the  hall,  and  the  garden,  down  the  steep  footpath 

cut  in  the  rocks.     I  heard  steps  behind  me;    was 

following  me ;  down,  down  I  sprang,  and  along  the  narrow 
footpath,  divided  only  by  a  thicket  from  the  tumultuous 
rapids.  I  saw  through  the  boughs  the  white  glimmer  of 
that  sea  of  foam.  'Go  on,  go  on;  don't  stop,'  shouted 

;   and  in  another  minute  the  thicket  was  passed;   I 

stood  upon  Table  Rock.    seized  me  by  the  arm,  and, 

without  speaking  a  word,  dragged  me  to  the  edge  of  the 
rapids,  to  the  brink  of  the  abyss.  I  saw  Niagara.  Oh, 
God!  who  can  describe  that  sight?" 


44  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

And  thus,  breathless  as  it  were,  at  the  brink  of  the  chasm, 
the  dramatic  Fanny  leaves  us — and  drops  the  subject. 

Dr.  Walter  Henry,  a  British  military  surgeon,  tells  in 
his  most  readable  volumes  ("Events  of  a  Military  Life") 
something  of  his  experiences  at  Niagara  in  1834.  I  quote  a 
few  lines  to  show  his  estimate  of  the  emotional  effect  of  the 
scene : 

"I  have  visited  the  Falls  of  Niagara  four  times ;  and  on 
three  of  these  occasions  in  company  with  ladies — for  the 
view  of  any  thing  grand  or  sublime  in  nature  or  art  is  not 
worth  two  pence  in  selfish  solitude,  or  rude  male  companion- 
ship, unembellished  by  the  sex ;  and  I  have  noticed  that  the 
predominant  feeling  at  first  is  the  inadequacy  of  language 
to  express  the  strength  of  the  emotion.  One  of  the  ladies 
alluded  to,  of  a  refined  mind  and  ingenuous  nature,  after 
gazing  for  the  first  time,  with  a  long  and  fixed  expression, 
on  the  sublime  object  before  her,  looked  for  an  instant  in 
my  face  and  burst  into  tears.  There  are  others  so  consti- 
tuted as  to  be  fascinated  by  the  spectacle  to  such  a  danger- 
ous and  overpowering  extent,  as  to  feel  a  strong  desire  to 
throw  themselves  into  the  abyss.  A  lady  of  good  sense  and 
mature  age  assured  me,  that  as  she  stood  on  the  edge  of 
the  Table  Rock,  this  impulse  became  so  strong  and  over- 
mastering, that  she  was  obliged  to  recede  rapidly  from  the 
brink,  for  fear  of  the  consequences.  Here  the  mind  must 
have  been  momentarily  deranged  by  the  awful  grandeur 
of  the  scene.  I  am  now  of  a  calm  and  subdued  tempera- 
ment, the  result  of  long  effort  and  much  reflection  on  the 
silliness  of  giving  rein  to  strong  feelings  and  emotions.  But 
when,  on  my  first  visit,  I  proceeded  through  the  Pavilion 
garden  towards  the  Table  Rock,  and  beheld  an  ocean 
moving  over  the  precipice,  and  flashing  and  gliding  into  the 
enormous  milk-white  pool  below,  without  any  apparent 
effort,  and  with  all  the  ease  of  a  quiet  rivulet  stealing 
through  a  meadow,  all  mental  restraint  gave  way,  and  my 
inmost  spirit  burst  out  in  loud  and  enthusiastic  admiration." 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  45 

The  year  1834  brought  several  other  book- writing  trav- 
elers, among  them  two  Doctors  of  Divinity,  the  Rev.  An- 
drew Reed  and  the  Rev.  James  Matheson,  who  collaborated 
on  a  "Narrative  of  the  visit  to  the  American  churches  .  .  . 
from  the  Congregational  Union  of  England  and  Wales." 
Their  studied,  precise  volumes  contain  conscientious  de- 
scriptions of  the  Niagara  scene — written,  too,  with  genuine 
intensity  of  feeling.  These  clergymen  were  among  the  first 
of  our  visitors  to  protest  against  the  ruin  of  Niagara  by 
vandal  money-seekers :  "Niagara  does  not  belong  to  them. 
Niagara  does  not  belong  to  Canada  or  America.  Such  spots 
should  be  deemed  the  property  of  civilized  mankind;  and 
nothing  should  be  allowed  to  weaken  their  efficacy  on  the 
tastes,  the  morals  and  the  enjoyments  of  all  men." 

The  Hon.  Charles  Augustus  Murray,  whose  "Travels  in 
North  America,"  were  dedicated  to  Queen  Victoria ;  and  the 
somewhat  scholarly  and  too  pedantic  Francis  Lieber,  author 
of  "Letters  to  a  Gentleman  in  Germany,  written  after  a  trip 
from  Philadelphia  to  Niagara,"  visited  our  region  in  1834. 
Greece  he  compares  to  a  great  epic,  "while  Niagara  is  a 
powerful  ode,  a  rhapsody  in  which  Nature  herself  has  seized 
the  mighty  harp  and  plays  a  rapturous  tune.  .  .  .  There 
is  not  once,  in  Dante's  whole  poem,  even  an  allusion  to 
watery  torment  and  horror,  and  yet  how  would  he  have 
seized  upon  the  sight  [of  Niagara]  and  wrought  it  into 
poetry."  A  more  eminent  visitor  of  that  year  was  Harriet 
Martineau,  who  found  much  to  comment  on  in  "lawless" 
Buffalo,  where  women  were  subject  to  insult.  She  gives  us 
a  long  chapter  on  Fort  Erie,  and  records  the  impressions  of 
two  visits  at  the  Falls. 

I  must  be  content  with  mere  mention  of  these  writers  of 
the  next  year:  Michel  Chevalier  ("Lettres  sur  I'Amerique 
du  Nord"},  who  writes  a  chapter  dated  "Buffalo,  9  July, 


46  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

1835,"  and  affords  us  not  merely  description,  but  some  study 
of  economic  conditions :  the  Rev.  F.  A.  Cox,  and  the  Rev. 
J.  Hoby,  two  "D.  D.'s"  who  attended  a  camp-meeting  near 
Niagara  Falls,  as  described  in  their  "Baptists  in  America" ; 
and  Don  Ramon  de  la  Sagra,  author  of  "Cinco  Meses  en  los 
Estados-Unidos."  There  also  came  in  that  year  Dr.  William 
Fleming,  whose  "Four  Days  at  the  Falls  of  Niagara," 
privately  printed  at  Manchester,  Eng.,  is  a  dainty  and 
attractive  little  book,  illustrated  with  exquisite  copper- 
plates. There  are  at  least  two  editions  of  it. 

The  year  1836  sent  hither  a  learned  German,  Dr.  J.  G. 
Biittner,  who  discourses  much  about  the  Seneca  Indians  in 
his  two-volume  "Brief e  aus  und  tiber  Nordamerika."  A 
notable  Englishman,  Sir  Francis  Bond  Head,  lieutenant 
governor  of  Upper  Canada,  who  was  sent  out  to  Canada  to 
struggle  with  the  Mackenzie  upheaval,  found  his  pleasure 
in  letters;  and  in  several  of  his  books,  his  "Narrative," 
"The  Emigrant,"  etc.,  offers  his  quota  of  Niagara  literature. 

Two  literary  Americans — rare  birds  at  that  day — came 
to  Niagara  this  year :  Willis  Gaylord  Clark,  whose  "Liter- 
ary Remains"  contain  an  anecdotal  account  of  his  journey 
by  stage  through  Western  New  York,  and  experiences  at 
Buffalo  and  the  Falls ;  and  Caroline  Gilman,  who  writes  of 
our  region  at  length  in  her  "Poetry  of  Traveling."  Pretty 
nearly  forgotten  now,  those  long-gone  devotees  of  belles- 
lettres;  yet  it  is  not  unprofitable  to  peruse  their  pages,  if 
only  to  realize  the  improvement  in  our  standards  of  taste 
and  literary  expression. 

The  year  1837,  marked  by  business  disturbance  and  po- 
litical excitement,  sent  at  least  five  British  book-writers  to 
the  banks  of  the  long-suffering  Niagara.  D.  Wilkie,  a  Scot, 
records  in  his  "Sketches  of  a  Summer  Trip  to  New  York 
and  the  Canadas,"  his  experiences  by  canal  to  Buffalo.  At 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  47 

Niagara  he  indulges  in  a  romance,  with  some  matter-of-fact 
reporting.  T.  R.  Preston,  a  Government  office-holder  at 
Toronto,  tells  in  his  "Three  Years'  Residence  in  Canada'' 
how  Niagara  should  properly  be  studied : 

"The  way  in  which  I  found  that  I  could  best  compre- 
hend the  magnitude  and  character  of  the  stupendous 
cataract,  was  by  lying  flat  upon  the  ground  in  its  near 
vicinity,  mentally  dissecting  as  it  were  while  so  recumbent, 
and  then  forming  combinations  of  the  particles  ad  infinitum. 
I  know  not  if  this  suggestion  be,  or  not,  a  novel  one;  but 
in  my  own  case,  its  adoption  was  the  result  of  accident,  as 
I  found  that,  when  close  upon  them,  I  could  not  regard  the 
Falls  for  many  minutes  together  in  an  erect  posture,  with- 
out succumbing  to  an  attracting  influence,  which  I  can 
compare  only  to  the  fascination  exercised  by  the  loadstone 
or  the  eye  of  the  rattlesnake.  I,  therefore,  adopted  the 
alternative  of  prostrating  myself  (which  answered  the  two- 
fold purpose  of  reverence  and  convenience),  and  was  in 
such  wise  enabled  to  contemplate,  for  hours  together, 
without  apprehension  for  my  personal  safety,  the  stupend- 
ous monument  of  ages  that  stood  reared  before  me." 

No  advice  of  this  kind  is  found  in  the  interesting  pages 
of  Mrs.  Jameson's  "Winter  Studies  and  Summer  Rambles,''" 
but  her  Niagara  chapters  are  important  for  the  history  of 
the  period.  Useful,  too,  are  the  scientific  observations  of 
Charles  Daubeny,  M.  D.,  F.  R.  S.,  etc.,  professor  of  chem- 
istry and  botany  at  Oxford,  who  tells  in  his  "Journal  of  a 
Tour,"  etc.,  how  he  studied  mineral  springs  two  miles  below 
the  cataract,  and  the  burning  spring  above.  His  report  on 
the  geology  of  the  Falls  region  is  contained  in  the  Transac- 
tions of  the  Ashmolean  Society  of  Oxford. 

More  to  the  popular  taste  were  the  pages  of  Captain 
Marryat,  whose  three-volume  "Diary  in  America"  is  to  be 
found  in  various  editions,  English  and  American.  Captain 
Marryat  thought  that  "perhaps  the  wisest  if  not  the  best 


48  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

description  of  the  Falls  of  Niagara  is  in  the  simple  ejacula- 
tion of  Mrs.  Butler,"  but  he  indulged  in  much  whimsical 
writing,  of  which  the  following  is  an  amusing  sample : 

"As  I  stood  on  the  brink  above  the  falls,  continuing  for 
a  considerable  time  to  watch  the  great  mass  of  water 
tumbling,  dancing,  capering,  and  rushing  wildly  along,  as 
if  in  a  hurry  to  take  the  leap  and  delighted  in  it,  I  could  not 
help  wishing  that  I  too  had  been  made  of  such  stuff  as 
would  have  enabled  me  to  have  joined  it;  with  it  to  have 
rushed  innocuously  down  the  precipice;  to  have  rolled 
uninjured  into  the  deep  unfathomable  gulf  below,  or  to 
have  gamboled  in  the  atmosphere  of  spray,  which  rose  in 
a  dense  cloud  from  its  recesses.  For  about  half  an  hour 
more  I  continued  to  watch  the  rolling  waters,  and  then  I 
felt  a  slight  dizziness  and  a  creeping  sensation  come  over 
me — that  sensation  arising  from  strong  excitement,  and 
the  same,  probably,  that  occasions  the  bird  to  fall  into  the 
jaws  of  the  snake.  This  is  a  feeling,  which,  if  too  long 
indulged  in,  becomes  irresistible,  and  occasions  a  craving 
desire  to  leap  into  the  flood  of  rushing  waters.  It  increased 
upon  me  every  minute;  and  retreating  from  the  brink,  I 
turned  my  eyes  to  the  surrounding  foliage,  until  the  effect 
of  the  excitement  had  passed  away.  I  looked  upon  the 
waters  a  second  time,  and  then  my  thoughts  were  directed 
in  a  very  different  channel.  I  wished  myself  a  magician, 
that  I  might  transport  the  falls  to  Italy,  and  pour  their 
whole  volume  of  waters  into  the  crater  of  Mount  Vesuvius ; 
witness  the  terrible  conflict  between  the  contending  ele- 
ments, and  create  the  largest  steam-boiler  that  ever  entered 
into  the  imagination  of  man." 

In  1838  I  note  but  one  book:  "A  Journey  in  North 
America  described  in  familiar  letters  to  Amelia  Opie,"  by 
Joseph  John  Gurney,  a  Quaker,  who  writes  that  in  Buffalo 
"we  were  received  in  the  hospitable  house  of  the  only 
Friend's  family  resident  there."  In  1839  came  George 
Combe,  one-time  phrenological  expert,  whose  two-volume 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  49 

account  of  his  American  travels  devotes  the  usual  pages  to 
our  region,  with  more  than  the  usual  errors  of  description. 
He  found  Navy  Island  the  largest  in  the  river;  was  de- 
lighted to  find  a  phrenological  society  in  Buffalo,  and  while 
here  helped  a  doctor  dissect  a  brain.  "I  was  told  that  the 
phrenologists  were  so  numerous  and  influential,  that  they 
would  experience  little  difficulty  in  getting  phrenology  in- 
troduced into  the  public  schools  as  a  philosophy  of  mind,  if 
they  had  a  work  suitable  for  the  purpose.  They  have  only 
one  zealous  opponent,  a  Presbyterian  clergyman  who 
preached  against  the  science."  The  chief  value  of  Combe's 
book,  in  its  local  aspect,  is  found  in  his  study  of  the  Indians 
near  Buffalo.  With  the  briefest  mention  of  J.  S.  Bucking- 
ham's comprehensive  "Eastern  and  Western  States  of 
America,"  which  gives  an  especially  good  account  of  Buf- 
falo, hotels,  steamboats,  etc.,  and  which  has  several  philoso- 
phizing, poetizing  pages  on  Niagara,  and  Lt.  Col.  A.  M. 
Maxwell's  "Run  through  the  United  States  during  the 
autumn  of  1840,"  I  end  my  notes  on  this  most  prolific  of 
decades. 

Why  so  many  authors  should  have  visited  the  Niagara 
region  in  the  decade  of  the  30*5,  and  why,  in  succeeding 
decades  they  came  in  diminishing  numbers,  I  leave  (for  the 
moment)  to  the  discerning  reader.  Although  there  were 
fewer,  from  '40  to  '50,  there  were  several  of  distinction. 
There  was  Sir  Richard  H.  Bonnycastle,  Lieutenant  Colonel 
of  Royal  Engineers,  and  of  the  Militia  of  Upper  Canada, 
who  was  long  in  the  Niagara  district  as  engineer  and  road- 
maker,  and  whose  two  volumes  ("The  Canadas  in  1841") 
are  pleasant  reading.  There  was  Joseph  Sturge,  Quaker  of 
Birmingham,  whose  "Visit  to  the  United  States  in  1841," 
though  largely  devoted  to  problems  of  international  peace, 
emancipation  of  the  negro,  and  kindred  matters,  has  some 


50  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

appreciative  pages  on  Niagara.  There  was  the  Earl  of  Car- 
lisle, a  guest  of  the  hospitable  Wadsworths,  as  he  was  of 
Mr.  Van  Buren  and  other  eminent  citizens.  His  imagina- 
tive temperament  found  expression  not  merely  in  verse,  but 
in  discourse  of  which  the  following  is  characteristic :  "Liv- 
ing at  Niagara  was  not  like  ordinary  life.  Its  not  overloud 
but  constant  solemn  roar,  has  in  itself  a  mysterious  sound: 
is  not  the  highest  voice  to  which  the  Universe  can  ever  listen, 
compared  by  inspiration  to  the  sound  of  many  waters  ?  The 
whole  of  existence  there  has  a  dreamy  but  not  a  frivolous 
impress;  you  feel  that  you  are  not  in  the  common  world, 
but  in  the  sublimest  temple." 

Mrs.  Eliza  A.  Steele's  "A  Summer  Journey  in  the  West" 
(New  York,  1841),  contains  a  short  chapter  on  Buffalo  and 
a  long  one  on  Niagara  Falls. 

Very  many  visitors  at  Niagara  have  been  put  into  a  seri- 
ous, often  a  deeply  devotional  frame  of  mind,  by  contempla- 
tion of  the  cataract.  Not  so  Augustus  E.  Silliman  (a 
brother  of  the  distinguished  Benjamin  D.  Silliman),  whose 
"Gallop  among  American  Scenery"  is  a  marvel  of  bad  style 
— inter jectional,  exclamatory,  a  literary  curio.  The  author 
visited,  apparently  in  1842,  Fort  Erie,  Lundy's  Lane  and 
Niagara,  of  which  he  writes  at  length.  In  that  year  came 
John  Robert  Godley,  whose  two  volumes  of  "Letters  from 
America"  are  by  no  means  free  from  the  superior,  conde- 
scending tone  often  employed  by  British  writers  on  America. 
Most  notable  of  all  Niagara  writers  at  this  period — perhaps 
most  quoted  of  them  all  after  Hennepin — was  Charles 
Dickens,  whose  sojourn  in  Buffalo  and  at  the  Falls  is  the 
theme  of  many  pages  in  the  "American  Notes."  A  much- 
admired  description  of  the  cataract  includes  the  following 
paragraphs : 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  61 

"Between  five  and  six  next  morning,  we  arrived  at 
Buffalo,  where  we  breakfasted;  and  being  too  near  the 
Great  Falls  to  wait  patiently  anywhere  else,  we  set  off  by 
train,  the  same  morning  at  nine  o'clock,  to  Niagara. 

"It  was  a  miserable  day;  chilly  and  raw;  a  damp  mist 
falling;  and  the  trees  in  that  northern  region  quite  bare 
and  wintry.  Whenever  the  train  halted,  I  listened  for  the 
roar ;  and  was  constantly  straining  my  eyes  in  the  direction 
where  I  knew  the  Falls  must  be,  from  seeing  the  river 
rolling  on  towards  them ;  every  moment  expecting  to  behold 
the  spray.  Within  a  few  minutes  of  our  stopping,  not 
before,  I  saw  two  great  white  clouds  rising  up  slowly  and 
majestically  from  the  depths  of  the  earth.  That  was  all. 
At  length  we  alighted :  and  then  for  the  first  time,  I  heard 
the  mighty  rush  of  water,  and  felt  the  ground  tremble 
underneath  my  feet. 

"The  bank  is  very  steep,  and  was  slippery  with  rain,  and 
half-melted  ice.  I  hardly  know  how  I  got  down,  but  I  was 
soon  at  the  bottom,  and  climbing,  with  two  English  officers 
who  were  crossing  and  had  joined  me,  over  some  broken 
rocks,  deafened  by  the  noise,  half-blinded  by  the  spray,  and 
wet  to  the  skin.  We  were  at  the  foot  of  the  American  Fall. 
I  could  see  an  immense  torrent  of  water  tearing  headlong 
down  from  some  great  height,  but  had  no  idea  of  shape,  or 
situation,  or  anything  but  vague  immensity. 

"When  we  were  seated  in  the  little  ferry-boat,  and  were 
crossing  the  swoln  river  immediately  before  both  cataracts, 
I  began  to  feel  what  it  was ;  but  I  was  in  a  manner  stunned, 
and  unable  to  comprehend  the  vastness  of  the  scene.  It 
was  not  until  I  came  on  Table  Rock,  and  looked — Great 
Heaven,  on  what  a  fall  of  bright-green  water! — that  it 
came  upon  me  in  its  full  might  and  majesty. 

"Then,  when  I  felt  how  near  to  my  Creator  I  was 
standing,  the  first  effect,  and  the  enduring  one — instant  and 
lasting — of  the  tremendous  spectacle,  was  Peace.  Peace 
of  Mind:  Tranquility:  Calm  recollections  of  the  Dead: 
Great  Thoughts  of  Eternal  Rest  and  Happiness:  nothing 
of  Gloom  or  Terror.  Niagara  was  at  once  stamped  upon 


52  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

my  heart,  an  Image  of  Beauty ;  to  remain  there,  changeless 
and  indelible,  until  its  pulses  cease  to  beat,  for  ever. 

"Oh,  how  the  strife  and  trouble  of  our  daily  life  receded 
from  my  view,  and  lessened  in  the  distance,  during  the  ten 
memorable  days  we  passed  on  that  Enchanted  Ground! 
What  voices  spoke  from  out  the  thundering  water;  what 
faces,  faded  from  the  earth,  looked  out  upon  me  from  its 
gleaming  depths ;  what  Heavenly  promise  glistened  in  those 
angels'  tears,  the  drops  of  many  hues,  that  showered 
around,  and  twined  themselves  about  the  gorgeous  arches 
which  the  changing  rainbows  made ! 

"I  never  stirred  in  all  that  time  from  the  Canadian  side, 
whither  I  had  gone  at  first.  I  never  crossed  the  river 
again;  for  I  knew  there  were  people  on  the  other  shore, 
and  in  such  a  place  it  is  natural  to  shun  strange  company. 
To  wander  to  and  fro  all  day,  and  see  the  cataracts  from 
all  points  of  view;  to  stand  upon  the  edge  of  the  Great 
Horse  Shoe  Fall,  marking  the  hurried  water  gathering 
strength  as  it  approached  the  verge,  yet  seeming,  too,  to 
pause  before  it  shot  into  the  gulf  below ;  to  gaze  from  the 
river's  level  up  at  the  torrent  as  it  came  streaming  down; 
to  climb  the  neighbouring  heights  and  watch  it  through  the 
trees,  and  see  the  wreathing  water  in  the  rapids  hurrying 
on  to  take  its  fearful  plunge ;  to  linger  in  the  shadow  of  the 
solemn  rocks  three  miles  below;  watching  the  river  as, 
stirred  by  no  visible  cause,  it  heaved  and  eddied  and  awoke 
the  echoes,  being  troubled  yet,  far  down  beneath  the 
surface,  by  its  giant  leap;  to  have  Niagara  before  me, 
lighted  by  the  sun  and  by  the  moon,  red  in  the  day's  decline, 
and  grey  as  evening  slowly  fell  upon  it;  to  look  upon  it 
every  day,  and  wake  up  in  the  night  and  hear  its  ceaseless 
voice :  this  was  enough. 

"I  think  in  every  quiet  season  now,  still  do  those  waters 
roll  and  leap,  and  roar  and  tumble,  all  day  long;  still  are 
the  rainbows  spanning  them,  a  hundred  feet  below.  Still, 
when  the  sun  is  on  them,  do  they  shine  and  glow  like 
molten  gold.  Still,  when  the  day  is  gloomy,  do  they  fall 
like  snow,  or  seem  to  crumble  away  like  the  front  of  a 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  53 

great  chalk  cliff,  or  roll  adown  the  rock  like  dense  white 
smoke.  But  always  does  the  mighty  stream  appear  to  die 
as  it  comes  down,  and  always  from  its  unfathomable  grave 
arises  that  tremendous  ghost  of  spray  and  mist  which  is 
never  laid:  which  has  haunted  this  place  with  the  same 
dread  solemnity  since  Darkness  brooded  on  the  deep,  and 
that  first  flood  before  the  Deluge — Light — came  rushing  on 
Creation  at  the  word  of  God." 

Susan  Margaret  Fuller's  "Summer  on  the  Lakes"  begins 
at  "Niagara,  June  10,  1843,"  but  this  gifted  woman  has  con- 
tributed but  slightly  to  our  local  literature.  A  visitor  of 

1844  was  Eliot  Warburton,  author  of  numerous  works, 
among  them  "Hochelaga,  or  England  in  the  New  World," 
in  which  he  dismisses  Niagara  with  this  summing  up :    "See 
it  from  Table  Rock,  gaze  thence  upon  it  for  hours — days  if 
you  like — and  then  go  home.    As  for  the  Rapids,  Cave  of 
the  Winds,  Burning  Spring,  etc.,  you  might  as  well  enter 
into  an  examination  of  the  gilt  figures  on  the  picture-frame, 
as  waste  your  time  on  them." 

Contrast  with  this  the  careful  study  made  of  our  river  in 

1845  by  Francis  Parkman ;  to  what  good  use,  every  reader 
of  his  histories  knows. 

George  Moore's  "Journal  .  .  .  with  Notes  on  Can- 
ada and  the  United  States  ...  in  1844"  devotes  sev- 
eral pages  to  Buffalo  and  the  Falls,  which  he  visited  in 
.October,  1843.  In  the  next  year  came  Frederick  Von 
Raumer,  whose  work  I  know  only  in  Turner's  translation, 
"America  and  the  American  People"  (New  York,  1846). 
The  author,  professor  of  history  in  the  University  of  Berlin, 
was  at  Niagara  Falls  in  July,  1844.  The  Rev.  Edward 
Waylen's  "Ecclesiastical  Reminiscences  of  the  United 
States"  (London,  1846)  has  a  Niagara  chapter  of  about 
this  date. 


54  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

Something  of  our  region,  in  varying  quantity  and  quality, 
will  be  found  in  the  Rev.  G.  Lewis'  "Impressions  of  America 
and  the  American  Churches"  (1844)  ;  in  William  Savery's 
"Journal"  of  that  year — another  of  the  useful  records  by 
members  of  the  Society  of  Friends ;  in  Alexander  Mackay's 
''The  Western  World"  (1846)  in  three  volumes,  dedicated 
to  Richard  Cobden;  and  in  William  Cullen  Bryant's  "Let- 
ters of  a  Traveler,"  the  poet's  visit  being  in  the  last  named 
year.  I  have  not  noted  anything  for  1847,  but  in  1848  there 
came  at  least  two  writers :  the  Rev.  James  Dixon,  D.  D., 
whose  "Personal  Narrative  of  a  Tour,"  etc.,  is  chiefly  an  ex- 
position of  the  state  of  Methodism  in  America  at  that  time ; 
and  Archibald  Prentice,  editor  of  the  Manchester  (Eng.) 
Times,  member  of  literary  and  philosophical  societies,  and  a 
clear,  sensible  writer.  He  found  himself  interested  in  Buf- 
falo, then  with  35,000  inhabitants;  and  of  Niagara,  he  ex- 
pressed himself  as  follows : 

"A  short  ride  on  the  railway  brought  us  from  Buffalo 
to  the  village  of  Niagara  and  the  Cataract  Hotel,  close  to 
the  back  of  which  are  the  great  falls.  I  was  soon  on  the 
point  of  rock  on  the  American  side,  where  they  are  in  full 
view.  It  takes  some  boldness  to  avow  that  I  was  less  awe- 
struck than  tourists  generally  profess  to  be;  but  I  was 
delighted  with  the  exceeding  beauty  of  the  scene.  Close 
at  hand  the  falling  river  was  broken  into  millions  of 
resplendent  diamonds;  farther  off  it  was  a  perpendicular 
fall  of  snow;  in  the  middle  it  was  the  rush  of  the  green 
ocean  wave  into  a  chasm  opened  in  the  great  deep;  and 
again  in  the  distance  was  the  gentle  snow-fall ;  all  illumin- 
ated by  a  brilliant  sun,  and  all  gentle  and  lovely.  There 
was  no  rage,  no  discord,  no  tumultuous  chafings  of  the 
immense  flood.  There  was  the  quietness  as  of  the  con- 
scious possession  of  power;  perfect  harmony;  perfect 
beauty.  I  saw  no  death  of  the  stream  as  it  fell — no  tre- 
mendous 'ghost  of  spray  and  mist.'  No  voices  spoke  to  me 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  55 

from  out  the  thundering  water.  There  was  the  majestic, 
softened  by  the  beautiful ; — calm,  gentle,  tranquil,  exceed- 
ing loveliness." 

A  literary  visitor  of  1849  was  Major  John  Thornton, 
author  of  a  "Diary  of  a  Tour  through  the  Northern  States 
of  the  Union  and  Canada."  What  Buffalonian  today  can 
recognize  his  city  in  the  following  picture:  "Buffalo  has  a 
most  imposing  appearance  as  viewed  from  the  lake.  The 
practice  of  roofing  the  cupolas,  domes,  roofs,  etc.,  with 
bright  tin,  has  a  most  dazzling  effect  when  the  sun's  rays 
are  reflected  from  them"!  Robert  Baird's  "Impressions 
and  Experiences  of  the  West  Indies  and  North  America" 
is  not  without  local  interest.  The  author  spent  a  week  at 
the  Falls  in  1849,  and  although  he  records  that  the  distance 
to  Buffalo  is  eleven  miles,  he  gets  most  of  his  facts  straight 
and  gives  a  full,  leisurely  account  of  his  experiences  and 
reflections.  Much  relating  to  Buffalo  and  Niagara  is  to  be 
found  in  "Minnen  fran  en  sjuttonarig  vistelse  i  Nordvestra 
Amerika,"  by  the  Rev.  Gustav  Unonius ;  his  book,  published 
at  Upsala,  Sweden,  in  1862,  records  events  of  a  tour  in 
1849. 

A  gifted  English  woman,  Mrs.  Houston,  author  of 
"Hesperos,  or  Travels  in  the  West,"  thought  Buffalo  in 
1849  "showy"  but  not  substantial.  At  Niagara  she  resented 
the  presence  of  the  town,  as  too  near  the  scenery.  In 
September,  1849,  James  F.  W.  Johnston  looked  us  over. 
His  two-volume  work,  "Notes  on  North  America,"  dis- 
cusses the  causes  of  Buffalo's  growth,  and  the  regional 
geology. 

I  note  but  one  foreign  visitor  in  1850,  but  that  one  most 
welcome.  Then  it  was  that  Frederika  Bremer  came,  I 
believe  with  James  Russell  Lowell  and  his  wife.  In  Buffalo 
she  was  asked :  "  'Does  Buffalo  look  according  to  your  ex- 


56  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

pectations  ?'  To  which  I  replied  that  I  had  not  expected  any- 
thing from  Buffalo."  She  wrote  delightfully  of  Niagara, 
as  the  reader  will  find,  who,  if  not  able  to  enjoy  Miss 
Bremer  in  the  Swedish,  can  not  fail  to  do  so  in  Mary 
Hewitt's  admirable  translation  of  "The  Homes  of  the  New 
World."  Were  I  writing  a  book  on  my  present  subject 
instead  of  trying  to  compress  it  into  as  few  pages  as 
possible,  I  should  dwell  at  length  on  the  poetic  prose  of  this 
gifted  writer. 

George  Francis  Train  gives  us  a  Niagara  incident  unique, 
as  might  be  expected,  and  altogether  romantic.  In  1850, 
when  an  ardent  youth,  he  saw  at  Syracuse  a  beautiful  girl, 
a  stranger.  Train  gazed,  and  vowed  to  a  friend:  "I  never 
saw  her  before  but  she  shall  be  my  wife."  With  supreme 
impudence,  and  in  the  spirit  that  perhaps  wins  battles,  he 
follows  the  maiden  and  her  elderly  escort.  They  take  train, 
he  does  the  same,  heedless  of  destination.  He  seats  himself 
near  the  goddess;  a  refractory  window  (herein  may  lie  a 
reason  why  they  always  are  refractory)  furnishes  an  excuse 
for  gallant  assistance.  The  ice  is  broken,  introductions 
follow.  At  Oswego,  the  young  lady  embarks  for  Niagara. 
Train  takes  the  same  boat.  Let  him  continue : 

"And  so  we  arrived  at  Niagara  together.  Dr.  Wallace 
was  kind  enough  to  permit  me  to  escort  his  charge  about 
the  Falls,  and  I  was  foolish  enough  to  do  several  risky 
things  in  a  sort  of  half -conscious  desire  to  appear  brave — 
the  last  infirmity  of  the  mind  of  a  lover.  I  went  under  the 
Falls  and  clambered  about  in  all  sorts  of  dangerous  places, 
in  an  intoxication  of  love.  It  was  the  same  old  story,  only 
with  the  difference  that  our  love  was  mutually  discovered 
and  confessed  amid  the  roaring  accompaniment  of  the  great 
cataract.  We  were  at  the  Falls  forty-eight  hours,  and  before 
we  left  we  were  betrothed." 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  57 

When  they  were  married,  the  next  year,  "my  wife,"  says 
Train,  "was  only  seventeen.  She  was  very  beautiful,"  as 
indeed  we  may  well  believe  from  her  published  portraits. 
His  experience  ("My  Life  in  many  States  and  in  Foreign 
Lands")  is  unique  so  far  as  the  chronicles  of  literature 
record,  but  nothing  is  clearer  in  the  history  of  Niagara  than 
that  it  has  always  been  a  favored  resort  of  Dan  Cupid  as 
well  as  the  shrine  of  Hymen. 

The  decade  of  the  '5o's,  like  that  just  reviewed,  brought 
us  a  score  and  more  of  authors.  In  1851,  we  have  J.  J. 
Ampere  of  the  French  Academy,  whose  "Promenade  en 
Amerique"  devotes  poetical  pages  to  Niagara,  with  some 
graphic  paragraphs  on  Buffalo;  and  Moritz  Busch,  author 
of  "Wanderungen  swischen  Hudson  und  Mississippi"  pub- 
liched  some  years  later  in  Stuttgart. 

George  William  Curtis  visited  Niagara  in  the  summer 
of  1851,  writing  from  there  a  series  of  letters  to  the  New 
York  Sun,  which  afterwards  were  embodied  in  his  delight- 
ful volume,  "Lotus  Eating."  The  clearness  of  his  percep- 
tion may  be  shown  by  one  brief  quotation:  "Disappoint- 
ment in  Niagara  must  be  affected,  or  childish."  The  next 
year  came  Alexander  Marjoribanks,  gathering  material  for 
his  "Travels  in  South  and  North  America."  While  at 
Niagara  he  marvels  as  much  at  the  suspension  bridge  as  at 
the  Falls.  The  "Autobiography"  of  the  Rev.  Abel  C. 
Thomas,  printed  in  Boston  in  1852,  has  an  account  of  the 
author's  preaching  on  Table  Rock. 

Another  world-wide  tourist,  William  Parish  Robertson, 
author  of  a  "Visit  to  Mexico  and  the  United  States,"  in 
two  volumes,  records  at  Niagara:  "I  came  too  late  to  say 
anything  which  could  be  new  or  interesting,  'Tout  est  dit,  et 
I'on  vient  trop  tard,'  as  La  Bruyere  pathetically  complains 
when  he  commences  his  'Caracteres.' "  Still  another 


58  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

visitor  of  this  summer  of  1852  was  Edmund  Patten,  author 
of  "Glimpse  at  the  United  States,"  etc.  And  not  to  be  over- 
looked is  Mrs.  Susanna  Moodie's  "Life  in  the  Clearings," 
etc.  (London,  1853),  with  its  good  account  of  the  Niagara 
neighborhood. 

The  year  of  1853  brought  to  our  shores  William  H.  H. 
Kingston,  in  whose  "Western  Wanderings,"  in  two  volumes, 
may  be  found  abundant  and  good  writing  descriptive  of  our 
region.  W.  E.  Baxter,  Member  of  Parliament,  made  one 
of  his  numerous  tours  through  the  United  States  in  this 
same  year.  A  series  of  lectures  given  by  him  on  his  return 
to  England  was  published  under  the  title  "America  and  the 
Americans."  He  has  pleasant  things  to  say  of  Buffalo,  and 
of  Niagara  one  very  good  thing:  "Niagara  must  be  visited 
in  silence  and  alone."  William  Chambers,  author  of 
"Things  as  they  are  in  America,"  was  especially  interested 
in  the  summer  of  '53  in  the  geology  of  the  Niagara  region. 
His  analytical  mind  experienced  a  sentiment  of  disappoint- 
ment which  "I  think,"  he  says,  "may  be  mainly  traced  to 
the  ranting  and  exaggerated  descriptions  which  have  de- 
ceived the  imagination  and  led  to  undue  expectations."  It 
is  interesting  to  note  that  in  this  year  there  came  to  Niagara 
Charles  Weld,  a  half-brother  of  the  Isaac  Weld  who  55 
years  before  had  been  one  of  the  earliest  to  visit  and 
describe  our  region.  The  younger  brother,  at  the  time  of 
his  American  tour  vice  president  of  the  Royal  Dublin 
Society,  writes  with  much  discernment  and  intelligence  of 
the  phenomena  of  Niagara.  About  the  time  of  his  visit 
came  also  two  other  notable  Britons :  the  Hon.  Amelia  M. 
Murray,  who,  in  her  "Letters  from  the  United  States,  Cuba 
and  Canada,"  tells  of  her  visit  to  Niagara  in  October, 
though  her  pages  are  chiefly  devoted  to  an  analysis  of 
American  social  customs.  In  this  year  also  came  the  Rev. 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  59 

John  Sinclair,  Vicar  of  Kensington  and  much  else;  his 
"Sketches  of  Old  Times  and  Distant  Places,"  printed  in 
London  as  late  as  1875,  has  a  readable  account  of  a  Niagara 
sojourn  in  1853. 

The  Rev.  Robert  Everest,  chaplain  to  the  East  India 
Company,  records  in  his  "Journey  through  the  United 
States  and  part  of  Canada"  that  as  he  was  on  the  street  in 
Buffalo,  then  a  town  of  60,000,  "a  plain  man  passed  alone 
with  an  umbrella  in  his  hand — Millard  Fillmore." 

I  note  three  wandering  authors  in  1855,  whose  works 
relate  to  this  region :  William  Ferguson,  in  whose  big  book, 
"America  by  River  and  Rail,"  will  be  found  his  description 
of  sight-seeing  on  board  the  first  Maid  of  the  Mist  and  his 
sage  reflection  regarding  the  cataract :  "Many  say  you  can't 
describe  it,  then  do  very  well" ;  and  Ivan  Golovin,  the 
object  of  whose  "Stars  and  Stripes,"  published  in  London 
the  next  year,  was  "to  show  that  the  United  States  are 
pursuing  a  wrong  way  in  their  politics  and  morals."  This 
reforming  Russian  paused  long  enough  in  his  career  of 
national  correction  to  declare  that  the  period  spent  at 
Niagara  embraced  the  most  happy  moments  of  his  life.  A 
third  traveller  of  this  year  was  J.  G.  Kohl,  whose  impres- 
sions are  to  be  found  in  his  "Reisen  in  Canada  u.  dutch  die 
Staaten  von  New  York  &  Pensylvanien." 

A  trifling  reporter  was  Thomas  Wilson,  author  of 
'-Trans-Atlantic  Sketches,"  his  visit  hereabout  being  in  1859. 
Of  slight  importance  is  the  "Sketches  of  the  South  and 
West,  or  Ten  Months  Residence  in  the  United  States,"  by 
Henry  Deedes,  also  of  this  year.  Far  worthier  our  atten- 
tion is  the  volume  of  still  another  traveling  Quaker,  William 
Tallack,  who  writes  pleasantly  of  the  Niagara  in  his 
"Friendly  Sketches  of  America."  Here,  too,  may  be  men- 
tioned John  White's  "Sketches  from  America,"  the  visit 


60  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

being  about  this  time,  though  the  book  was  published  in 
London  in  1870. 

The  one  most  notable  visit  of  the  decade  ending  with 
1860,  was  that  of  the  young  Prince  of  Wales.  Several 
books  record  his  American  travels.  Among  those  most 
worthy  the  attention  of  the  curious  reader  is  "The  Prince 
of  Wales  in  Canada  and  the  United  States,"  by  Nicholas 
Augustus  Woods,  special  correspondent  of  the  London 
Times.  This  work  contains  a  long,  picturesque  account  of 
the  Prince's  visit  to  Niagara,  the  exhibitions  of  Blondin, 
etc.  A  briefer  account  of  the  royal  tour,  by  Gardner  D. 
Engleheart,  private  secretary  to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle, 
was  privately  printed  in  1860,  with  a  few  exquisite  illustra- 
tions from  the  author's  drawings. 

The  Earl  of  Southesk  (K.  T.,  F.  R.  G.  S.),  in  his 
"Saskatchewan"  (Edinburgh,  1875),  makes  record  of  his 
visit  to  Niagara  in  May,  1859.  He  was  little  pleased  with 
the  scene.  "It  is  too  huge,"  he  says,  "and  the  disgustingly 
obtrusive  civilization  that  crawls  over  its  sides  turns  my 
very  heart  sick.  ...  A  narrower,  higher  cataract 
would  strike  more  sharply  on  the  mental  vision,  than  low- 
statured,  wide-spreading  Niagara.  .  .  .  The  Canadian 
side  is  not  strikingly  offensive,  but  the  American  side  teems 
with  glaring  wooden  structures  hanging  over  the  very  preci- 
pice. .  .  .  Some  wretched  person  has  built  a  mock  ruin 
on  a  little  island  that  actually  overhangs  the  Fall" — and 
more  in  the  same  strain. 

A  war-time  visitor  was  Anthony  Trollope,  who  in  1858- 
i86i,made  several  stops  at  Niagara.  The  last  visit,  thirty 
years  after  his  mother's  famous  sojourn,  gave  us  a  very 
good  chapter  in  his  "North  America."  The  attitude  of  his 
mind  is  shown  by  the  following  excerpt: 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  61 

"Of  all  the  sights  on  this  earth  of  ours  which  tourists 
travel  to  see, — at  least  of  all  those  which  I  have  seen, — I 
am  inclined  to  give  the  palm  to  the  Falls  of  Niagara.  In 
the  catalogue  of  such  sights  I  intend  to  include  all  buildings, 
pictures,  statues  and  wonders  of  art  made  by  men's  hands, 
and  also  all  beauties  of  nature  prepared  by  the  Creator  for 
the  delight  of  His  creatures.  This  is  a  long  word ;  but  as 
far  as  my  taste  and  judgment  go,  it  is  justified.  I  know  no 
other  one  thing  so  beautiful,  so  glorious  and  so  powerful." 

One  of  our  visitors,  in  1854,  was  a  truly  remarkable 
traveler,  the  Viennese  scholar,  Ida  Meyer  Pfeiffer,  who 
spent  most  of  her  life  in  roaming  the  world.  She  had  been 
twice  around  the  globe — not  the  trifling  jaunt  then  that  it  is 
now — when  she  came  to  the  Niagara  in  August,  1854. 
Though  she  had  seen  so  much  she  seems  to  have  saved  her 
superlative  emotions  for  these  falls.  August  loth  she 
writes : 

"This  was  a  day  never  to  be  forgotten  in  the  annals  of 
my  life — one  of  those  which  brilliantly  rewarded  me  for 
all  the  toils  and  hardships  by  which  they  were  purchased; 
for  on  this  day  I  beheld  one  of  the  most  sublime  and  won- 
derful scenes  of  God's  beautiful  world — the  falls  of 
Niagara!  What  the  eye  sees,  what  the  soul  feels,  at  this 
spectacle,  can  never  be  described:  painter  and  poet  would 
despair  of  success  in  such  an  attempt.  Did  a  man  meet  his 
mortal  enemy  on  this  spot,  he  must  at  once  forgive  him; 
and  should  one  who  has  doubted  of  the  existence  of  God 
come  to  this,  one  of  the  noblest  of  His  altars,  he  must,  I 
think,  return  converted  and  tranquilized.  Oh !  that  I  could 
have  shared  with  all  my  friends,  with  all  mankind,  the 
emotions  awakened  by  this  wonder  of  creation." 

Another  great  traveler  who  first  saw  Niagara  in  that 
year  was  Bayard  Taylor.  His  volume  entitled  "Home  and 
Abroad,"  tells  of  his  visits,  especially  of  one  in  1860;  and 
touches  well  upon  an  affectation  of  tourists:  "I  read  last 


62  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

winter  in  one  of  the  papers  a  most  admirable  description  of 
the  falling  of  the  water,  entitled  'Niagara,  but  Not  de- 
scribed.' The  writer  knew  all  the  time  he  was  describing  it." 
In  1862  our  Niagara  author  is  Samuel  Phillips  Day 
("English  America").  The  next  year  apparently  brought 
but  one,  Lucien  Biart,  whose  book,  "A  trovers  I'Amerique," 
was  "crowned"  by  the  French  Academy  and  has  had  several 
editions.  The  author  writes  lightly  and  brightly  of  Niagara 
in  winter.  The  next  year  came  another  Frenchman,  Auguste 
Laugel,  author  of  "Les  Etats-Unis  pendant  la  Guerre." 
The  French  never  fail  to  write  attractively  of  Niagara,  and 
Laugel  is  no  exception,  though  he  declares  that  he  has  never 
seen  a  good  picture  of  it.  Another  French  author,  Jules 
Marcou,  made  five  visits  to  Niagara,  i848-'5o.  In  Septem- 
ber, 1863,  he  came  again,  and  wrote  agreeably  of  his  experi- 
ences under  the  title  "Le  Niagara  qu'mze  ans  apres."  Late 
in  the  war — 1865 — a  distinguished  English  writer  who  had 
been  war  correspondent  in  America,  W.  Howard  Russell, 
visited  Niagara,  in  the  preparation  of  his  "Canada,  its 
Defences,  Condition  and  Resources."  He  was  an  enter- 
taining writer.  In  an  earlier  book,  "My  Diary  North  and 
South"  (1863),  he  devotes  a  whole  chapter  to  Niagara, 
which  he  first  visited  in  1862.  With  him  I  close  the  meagre 
list  of  author  travelers  in  our  region  during  the  Civil  War. 
The  reasons  for  this  meagreness  are  too  obvious  to  call  for 
comment.  Nor  is  the  rest  of  the  decade  of  the  '6o's  any 
richer  in  production.  We  have  Oscar  Comettant's  "Voyage 
Pittoresqne  et  Anecdotique,"  etc. ;  and  F.  Barham  Zincke's 
"Last  Winter  in  the  United  States,"  in  which  he  tells  how 
he  was  snowbound  at  Niagara  in  the  winter  of  '67- '8. 
Captain  W.  F.  Butler  was  at  Niagara  in  September,  1867. 
In  his  "Great  Lone  Land"  he  writes  that  "Niagara  was  a 
place  to  be  instinctively  shunned,"  and  unfolds  an  enter- 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE   BOOKS.  63 

prising  Yankee's  plan  for  drying  up  the  Falls!  F.  French 
Townshend's  "Ten  Thousand  Miles  of  Travel,  Sport  and 
Adventure"  (London,  1869),  contains  an  account  of  his 
visit  to  Niagara  in  1868. 

Belonging  by  association  and  American  interest  to  the 
Civil  War  period  is  Thomas  Hughes — the  beloved  "Tom" 
of  Rugby — who  came  to  America  for  the  first  time  in  1870, 
and  saw  Niagara  in  September  of  that  year.  One  reads  of 
it  in  his  "Vacation  Rambles,"  chattiest,  most  genial  of  books. 
His  principal  impression — at  least  his  principal  Niagara  rec- 
ord— was  of  the  current  baths  :  "We  had  a  bath  in  the  rush 
just  above  the  Falls ;  you  have  a  little  room  through  which 
a  slice  some  four  feet  wide  of  the  water  is  allowed  to  rush ; 
you  get  in  at  the  side,  in  the  back  water,  and  then  take  hold 
cf  a  short  rope  fixed  close  above  the  rush,  and  let  the  water 
seize  and  tear  at  you,  which  it  does  with  a  vengeance,  tug- 
ging as  if  it  would  carry  off  your  legs  and  pull  you  in  two 
in  the  middle.  You  can  get  out  of  it  in  a  moment  by  just 
slewing  yourself  round,  and  the  sensation  is  marvelously 
delicious." 

In  the  decade  of  the  7o's — I  think  as  early  as  1871 — 
came  Henry  James;  not  then  so  distinguished  as  now,  but 
master  (as  he  does  not  always  clearly  demonstrate)  of 
an  incomparable  style.  Of  all  the  writers  who  have 
seriously  addressed  themselves  to  the  task  of  describing 
Niagara  Falls,  Henry  James  is,  in  my  judgment,  easily 
first.  He  is  among  writers  what  Church  is  among  painters — 
thoroughly  poetic  and  thoroughly  sincere.  He  saw  Niagara 
when  it  was  yet  in  the  hands  of  the  Philistines,  and  in  elab- 
orated sentences  he  called  for  its  rescue.  Then,  goaded  by 
"the  importunities  from  hackmen  and  photographers  and 
vendors  of  jim-cracks,"  he  passes  into  a  holy  rage,  declares 
them  all  "simply  hideous  and  infamous,"  and  calls  on  the 


64  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

State  to  buy  the  landscape.  Few  voices  were  raised  for  this 
redemption,  earlier  than  his.  And  when  he  does  gain  soli- 
tude and  silence,  how  he  adores  it !  Always  an  analyst,  he 
goes  like  the  great  artist,  at  once  to  its  heart.  We  may  smile 
a  little  at  his  phrases,  with  just  a  hint  of  bestowing  approval 
on  the  Creator  as  well  as  on  His  works :  "The  perfect  taste 
of  it  is  the  great  characteristic.  It  is  not  in  the  least  mon- 
strous ;  it  is  thoroughly  artistic  and,  as  the  phrase  is,  thought 
out.  In  the  matter  of  line  it  beats  Michael  Angelo."  The 
more  he  studies,  the  more  he  approves,  and  presently — he 
cannot  conceal  it — the  poet-soul  of  him  is  in  love  with  it: 
"Nothing  was  ever  more  successfully  executed" — this  he 
says,  of  the  crest  of  the  fall ;  "it  is  as  gentle  as  the  pouring 
of  wine  from  a  flagon — of  melody  from  the  lips  of  a  singer. 
...  If  the  line  of  beauty  had  vanished  from  the  earth 
elsewhere,  it  would  survive  on  the  brow  of  Niagara."  He 
even  approved  of  the  Terrapin  tower,  still  standing  at  the 
date  of  his  visit,  and  which  to  many  visitors  was  an  offense ; 
but  this  critic  thought  its  builder  "deserves  a  compliment," 
for  he  had  set  up  a  little  but  useful  standard  for  comparison. 
Henry  James  at  Niagara  was  as  far  from  the  hysterical 
panegyrist  as  a  Tyndall,  let  us  say,  is  far  from  the  welling 
emotions  of  a  Mrs.  Sigourney,  or  the  emotional  attitudiniz- 
ing of  a  Dickens ;  but  his  study  of  it  (to  be  found  in  "Por- 
traits of  Places")  sets  the  high-water  mark,  I  think,  in  all 
the  flood  of  descriptive  writing  on  this  subject. 

Speaking  generally,  from  the  Civil  War  to  the  end  of  the 
century,  the  literature  of  travel  touching  our  region  is  well- 
nigh  negligible  in  value.  Some  notable  visitors  have  come, 
some  pleasant  pages  have  been  written ;  but  more  and  more 
there  is  a  disposition  to  treat  Niagara  as  a  twice-told  tale. 
In  1872,  I  note  the  visit  of  Lady  Dufferin,  who  has  left  a 
pleasant  record  in  "My  Canadian  Journal"  of  her  visit  to 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  65 

Niagara  with  General  Sir  C.  Hastings  Doyle,  Lieutenant 
Governor  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  Sir  Edward  Thornton,  then 
British  Minister  at  Washington.  With  Colonel  Sir  Cassimir 
S.  Gzowski — the  distinguished  engineer  of  the  International 
Bridge — Lady  Dufferin  visited  Buffalo,  where,  she  writes, 
"one  gets  such  an  impression  of  wealth  and  comfort  that 
one  is  astonished."  Another  visitor  of  that  year  was  Julius 
George  Medley,  Lieutenant  Colonel  of  Royal  Engineers, 
Fellow  of  the  University  of  Calcutta,  etc.,  from  whose  "Au- 
tumn Tour  in  the  United  States  and  Canada"  one  gets  the 
impression  that  he  thought  it  something  of  a  bore  to  write 
of  Niagara  and  hardly  worth  while  to  trouble  either  himself 
or  his  readers  with  serious  description. 

A  picturesque  wanderer  of  1874  was  Henri  Rochefort, 
returning  to  France  from  his  political  exile — he  had  escaped 
from  the  penal  colony  of  New  Caledonia.  No  livelier 
book  was  ever  written  than  his  "Story  of  My  Life,"  in 
which  he  tells  characteristically  of  his  brief  sojourn  at  Ni- 
agara in  May  of  the  year  named.  "All  around  the  Falls," 
he  says,  "which  are  really  majestic,  though  one  feels  inclined 
to  believe  that  they  have  been  put  there  to  attract  foreigners 
of  every  nationality — is  a  perpetual  sort  of  St.  Cloud  fete. 
The  banks  on  the  sides  of  the  rapids  are  crowded  with  ped- 
lars and  even  fair-stalls.  Everything  is  on  sale,  especially 
bracelets  of  German  lapis-lazuli  and  Vesuvian  lava ;  that  is 
to  say,  the  products  of  numerous  industries  that  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  Niagara  and  its  Falls.  ...  A  wild-beast 
showman  absolutely  insisted  on  my  purchasing  a  bear,  which 
turned  sadly  about  in  its  cage  just  as  I  had  done  in  mine 
only  a  few  months  earlier" !  Rochefort  viewed  "the  grand 
cascade"  from  the  middle  of  the  suspension  bridge;  it  fin- 
ishes, he  says,  "by  giving  you  the  impression  of  being  an 
immense  stick  of  marsh  mallow  or  barley  sugar  twisting 


66  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

round  a  bobbin  of  an  Algerian  stall  at  a  suburban  fair"- 
about  the  most  extraordinary  impression  in  our  whole  cate- 
gory. He  lodged  at  the  Clifton  House,  and  when  the  man- 
ager brought  the  visitors'  book,  "I  contented  myself  with 
tracing  this  burlesque  phrase:  'This  fall  is  profound,  but 
my  own  is  still  greater!  (Signed)  The  Shadow  of  Napo- 
leon III.' " 

The  "Western  Wanderings"  of  J.  W.  Bodham-Whetham, 
though  touching  our  region,  is  of  no  special  value;  nor  is 
the  jaunty  and  journalistic  "Letters  sent  Home"  by  William 
Morris  (author  of  "France  and  the  French,"  etc.).  Mu- 
sicians are  seldom  authors,  but  Jacques  Offenbach,  who 
came  to  Niagara  in  1875,  wrote  lightly,  somewhat  ecsta- 
tically, of  what  he  saw,  in  "America  and  the  Americans." 
A  poetical  gentleman  of  Spanish  blood,  Guillermo  Prieto, 
wrote  poetically  of  us  in  1877,  his  book,  "Viaje  a  los  Esta- 
dos-Unidos,"  being  published  in  Mexico.  In  that  year  came 
also  William  Saunders  ("Through  the  Light  Continent"), 
and  H.  Hussey  Vivian,  M.  P.,  F.  G.  S.,  in  whose  "Notes  of  a 
Tour  in  America"  I  am  struck  by  the  following  passage: 
"It  (the  fall)  impressed  me  with  a  sense  of  its  own  gran- 
deur, and  the  impotence  of  man,  more  than  anything  I  ever 
saw,  more  than  the  eruption  of  Vesuvius,  the  crashings  of  a 
continental  thunder-storm,  or  an  ocean  gale."  And  after  all 
that,  he  was  disappointed  in  the  Great  Lakes.  In  our  list 
should  be  included  Charles  Marshall's  "The  Canadian 
Dominion,"  and  Willis  Nash's  "Oregon,"  and  William 
Morris's  "Letters  sent  Home,"  all  of  which  have  chapters 
on  Niagara  as  seen  in  the  '7o's. 

Walt  Whitman,  in  his  "November  Boughs"  tells  of  his 
first  visit  to  Niagara  in  1848.  It  is  just  about  the  tersest 
Niagara  chapter  I  have  come  upon: 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  67 

"Got  in  the  cars  and  went  to  Niagara.  Went  under  the 
Falls — saw  the  whirlpool  and  all  the  other  sights." 

Many  years  after,  in  June,  1880,  he  saw  Niagara  again 
and  wrote  of  it  in  characteristic  fashion : 

"For  really  seizing  a  great  picture  or  book,  or  piece  of 
music,  or  architecture,  or  grand  scenery — or  perhaps  for 
the  first  time  even  the  common  sunshine,  or  landscape,  or 
may-be  even  the  mystery  of  identity,  most  curious  mystery 
of  all — there  comes  some  lucky  five  minutes  of  a  man's  life, 
set  amid  a  fortuitous  concurrence  of  circumstances,  and 
bringing  in  a  brief  flash  the  culmination  of  years  of  reading 
and  travel  and  thought.  The  present  case  about  two  o'clock 
this  afternoon  gave  me  Niagara,  its  superb  severity  of 
action  and  color  and  majestic  grouping,  in  one  short,  indes- 
cribable show.  We  were  very  slowly  crossing  the  Sus- 
pension bridge — not  a  full  stop  anywhere,  but  next  to  it — 
the  day  clear,  sunny,  still — and  I  out  on  the  platform.  The 
falls  were  in  plain  view  about  a  mile  off,  but  very  distinct, 
and  no  roar — hardly  a  murmur.  The  river  tumbling  green 
and  white,  far  below  me ;  the  dark  high  banks,  the  plentiful 
umbrage,  many  bronze  cedars,  in  shadow;  and  tempering 
and  arching  all  the  immense  materiality,  a  clear  sky  over- 
head, with  a  few  white  clouds,  limpid,  spiritual,  silent. 
Brief,  and  as  quiet  as  brief,  that  picture — a  remembrance 
always  afterwards." 

Mere  mention  may  suffice  for  W.  G.  Marshall's  hand- 
somely illustrated  "Through  America"  (1878) ;  Lady  Duf- 
fus  Hardy's  "Through  Cities  and  Prairie  Lands"  and  "Be- 
tween Two  Oceans" — her  Niagara  visit  being  about  1880; 
David  Pidgeon's  "An  Engineer's  Holiday,"  of  the  same 
year;  T.  S.  Hudson's  "Scamper  through  America"  (1882)  ; 
Alberto  Lombardo's  "Los  Estados-Unidos"  (1882);  and 
the  work  of  still  another  Mexican,  Don  Juan  Bustamante  y 
Campuzano,  secretary  of  legation  at  Washington,  who  in 
his  "Del  Atlantico  al  Pacifico,"  tells  of  his  visit  to  Niagara 


68  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

in  August,  1882.  In  1883  came  Thomas  Greenwood  ("A 
Tour  in  the  States  and  Canada — Out  and  Home  in  Six 
Weeks") ;  in  1884,  the  Marquis  of  Lome  ("Memories  of 
Canada  and  Scotland")  ;  in  1885,  Alberto  G.  Bianchi,  who 
in  "Los  Estados-Unidos"  describes  the  tour  of  a  party  of 
Mexicans;  and  in  1886,  Charles  Bigot,  whose  little  book, 
"De  Paris  au  Niagara"  has  the  good  French  gift  of  pic- 
turesqueness.  At  Niagara  the  author  regrets  that  he  is  not 
a  word  painter  like  Zola  or  Loti.  Loti  indeed  would  give  us 
a  Niagara  page  or  two  worth  while.  Sir  Henry  Irving's 
"Impressions  of  America"  (1884),  written  by  Joseph 
Hatton,  has  a  pleasant  Niagara  chapter.  Frederic  Daly's 
"Irving"  also  touches  our  region. 

Most  of  these  recent  books  offer  little  of  value,  especially 
in  comparison  with  the  elaborate  chapters  of  earlier  decades. 
Sir  Edwin  Arnold  tarried  at  Niagara  in  the  autumn  of 
1889,  and  in  "Seas  and  Lands"  writes  of  it  in  poetical  vein. 
B.  Kroupa,  author  of  "An  Artist's  Tour"  (1890),  is  content 
at  Niagara  to  complain  of  excessive  fees.  C.  L.  Johnstone's 
"Winter  and  Summer  Excursions  in  Canada"  (1894)  de- 
votes but  a  few  paragraphs  to  our  region,  and  those  not  ac- 
curate. A  notable  visitor  of  1894  was  S.  Reynolds  Hole, 
Dean  of  Rochester,  who  in  his  "Little  Tour  in  America" 
is  clerically  discursive  and  anecdotal,  and  calls  Niagara 
"the  most  wonderful  place  in  the  world."  Most  matter-of- 
fact  was  Lady  Theodora  Guest,  whose  "Round  Trip  in 
North  America"  brought  her  to  Niagara  in  1894 ;  she  wrote 
that  it  was  "a  marvelous  mass  of  water,  but  that  it  has  no 
other  advantage — no  fine  scenery,  no  weather  and  no  fine 
flowers."  The  last  decade  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  may 
close,  so  far  as  our  review  is  concerned,  with  Mrs.  Schuyler 
Van  Rensselaer,  whose  study  of  Niagara  is  found  in  the 
Century  Magazine,  June,  1899;  with  Dr.  Auguste  Lutaud 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  69 

("Aux  Etats-Unis"') ;  and  with  Rudyard  Kipling,  who  in 
his  "American  Notes"  (1899)  takes  no  heed  of  Niagara, 
but  pays  his  respects  to  Buffalo  in  a — for  him — most  gra- 
cious fashion. 

The  foregoing  perhaps  tedious  record  takes  on  an  aspect 
of  interest  when  considered  as  a  whole.  Let  us  consider 
for  a  moment  these  travel-books,  relating  in  part  to  the 
Niagara.  The  list  could  be  extended,  but  we  lose  little  by 
shortening  it.  Ignoring  a  few  of  the  least  value,  we  have 
about  190  books  of  travel,  written  in  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury, which  record,  often  at  great  length,  the  writers'  im- 
pressions of  Niagara  Falls,  Buffalo  and  the  adjacent  region. 
By  far  the  largest  part  of  these  books  are  by  English  men 
and  women.  There  is  a  fair  sprinkling  of  Scots,  a  few 
French,  Germans,  Mexicans;  but  probably  90  per  cent,  of 
the  lot  were  English.  Most  of  the  descriptive  literature  of 
Niagara,  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  was  published  in  Lon- 
don. Some  of  the  authors  were  officials  in  Canada,  some 
were  specially  interested  in  emigration,  or  slavery,  or  other 
phase  of  American  life;  some  were  correspondents  for 
British  journals;  and  some  were  tourists — early  specimens 
of  the  genus  globe-trotter,  with  the  book-writing  habit. 
Good  and  bad,  take  them  through  the  century,  their  pages 
give  us  data  not  elsewhere  recorded,  from  which  we  get  a 
fuller  knowledge  and  a  clearer  idea  of  conditions  here- 
abouts, during  the  century,  than  from  any  other  source. 

The  production  of  travelers'  books  relating  to  the  Niag- 
ara during  the  Nineteenth  Century  could  be  very  simply 
shown  in  diagram,  after  the  edifying  fashion  of  the  zigzag 
dotted  line  which  in  Government  weather  charts  expresses 
the  variation  of  temperature,  or  which  is  often  used  to  in- 
dicate the  fluctuation  of  the  stock  market.  Let  a  base  line 
say  of  ten  inches  represent  the  century — a  decade  to  an 


70  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

inch.  Starting  with  one  author  in  1800,  a  gradually 
ascending  line  indicates  the  half  dozen  or  so  who  had  ap- 
peared by  1810.  By  1820,  with  17  more  books,  the  line 
reaches  twice  as  high.  It  climbs  but  little,  prior  to  1830; 
but  from  1830  to  1840  it  jumps  to  twice  its  former  height; 
a  veritable  little  alp  of  literature.  In  the  next  ten  years  it 
falls  almost  to  the  point  of  1830;  and  with  some  variations 
it  gradually  declines,  until,  at  1900,  we  have  no  more  litera- 


1 

\ 

/ 

\ 

/ 

• 

/ 

\ 

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•V 

*  7 

\ 

23 

\ 

s'' 

• 

1 

r,-' 

•'I* 

T/ 

Y             Xf—  * 

.,"••] 

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It  00        'io         '20        '30          'fO         yo          '(,6         '70        'SO         "ft       fWO 

Diagram  illustrating  the  distribution  by  decades  of  187  authors  who  visited  and 
wrote  of  Niagara  Falls,  1800  to  1900.  The  bottom  figures  indicate  the  decade  ;  those 
at  the  top  the  number  of  visiting  authors  for  each  decade.  It  strikingly  shows  the 
effect  of  increased  facilities  of  travel,  in  the  '30*8,  and  the  restrictive  effect  of  the 
Civil  War. 

ture  descriptive  of  Niagara  in  the  new  books  of  travel  than 
we  had  in  the  first  ten  years  of  the  century.  Travel  books 
are  still  being  written;  but  the  tourist — especially  the 
Briton — no  longer  makes  the  Niagara  his  chief  objective  in 
America.  Nowadays  he  is  usually  hurrying  across  the  con- 
tinent to  the  far  Northwest  or  Japan,  and  is  content  to  see 
Niagara  from  a  car  window,  or  ignore  it  altogether. 

The  literature  of  travel  affords  not  merely  an  array  of 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  71 

facts,  but  illustrates  the  singular  behavior  of  the  human 
mind  in  contemplating  the  superlative  in  Nature.  About 
one-half  of  the  literary  visitors  at  Niagara  record  that  at 
first  sight  they  were  deeply  disappointed.  The  other  half 
declare  that  the  falls  quite  came  up  to  expectations.  Very 
many  visitors  feel  under  obligations  to  the  occasion,  and  in- 
dulge in  affectedly  fine  writing.  They  become  studiedly 
sentimental.  This  is  strikingly  true  of  writers  from  say 
1830  to  1860.  It  was  not  merely  the  women,  whose  natures 
lead  us  to  expect  emotional  expression,  but  often  the  men 
as  well,  who  indulged  in  apostrophe  and  exclamation,  in 
posing  and  phrasing,  as  silly  as  anything  in  the  literature  of 
our  language.  After  a  time  affectation  ceased  to  be  good 
form  and  literary  hysteria  went  out  of  fashion.  I  have 
sometimes  wondered  whether  the  experiences  of  the  Civil 
War  did  not  have  a  chastening  and  elevating  effect  on  our 
national  literature.  But  the  simpler,  sincerer  expression 
which  present  taste  prefers  is  by  no  means  confined  to 
American  writers,  although  in  our  present  study  it  is  most 
evident  in  American  books,  because  from  about  1860  there 
was  a  marked  falling  off  in  books  descriptive  of  this  region, 
by  foreign  authors ;  whereas  much  of  the  best  that  had  been 
written  about  it  is  by  Americans  of  our  own  generation. 
When  we  recall  that  the  Niagara  panorama,  scenic  and 
human,  has  employed  the  pens  of  James  Fenimore  Cooper, 
of  Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  Bayard  Taylor,  George  William 
Curtis,  Charles  Dudley  Warner,  Henry  James,  and  William 
Dean  Howells  (I  am  not  forgetting  many  others  of  varying 
quality,  from  N.  P.  Willis  to  Mark  Twain),  it  becomes 
plain  that  although  probably  the  greater  bulk  of  descriptive 
literature  has  been  furnished  by  British  commentators,  yet 
the  essential  and  worthiest  literature  of  the  region  has  of 
late  years  been  penned  by  Americans. 


72  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

The  memoirs  or  biographies  of  celebrities  contain  many 
an  interesting  allusion  to  or  account  of  their  visits  to 
Buffalo  and  Niagara  Falls,  which  are  not  to  be  found  in 
their  books,  published  during  their  life-time.  Fitz-Greene 
Halleck  in  1820,  Catherine  M.  Sedgwick  in  1821,  John  Neal 
in  1833,  Harriet  Beecher  in  1834,  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  in 
1849  or  5° — an(l  so  on  down  the  decades.  Charles  A.  Dana 
came  to  Buffalo,  a  little  boy,  in  1812.  Here  he  learned  to 
speak  the  Seneca;  and  his  biographer,  James  H.  Wilson, 
says  that  when  he  first  saw  Niagara  Falls  he  was  so  im- 
pressed by  them  that  "he  composed  an  ode  on  their  grandeur 
which  had  considerable  merit  but  as  it  has  long  been  lost 
this  statement  must  be  taken  on  faith."  Annie  Fields,  in 
her  "Life  and  Letters  of  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,"  gives 
"Hattie"  Beecher's  impressions  of  Niagara,  which  she 
visited  in  1834:  "I  felt  as  if  I  could  have  gone  over  with 
the  waters ;  it  would  have  been  so  beautiful  a  death,  there 
would  be  no  fear  in  it,"  etc.  This  was  two  years  before  she 
married  Professor  Stowe,  and  eighteen  years  before  "Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin"  made  her  the  most  famous  of  American 
women  authors.  George  Ticknor  was  at  Niagara  in  1827 
and  again  in  1845,  when  he  wrote  a  long  description  to 
G.  T.  Curtis  in  Boston : 

"The  finest  thing  we  have  seen  yet,  and  one  of  the 
grandest  I  ever  saw,  was  a  thunder-storm  among  the  waters, 
as  it  seemed  to  be,  the  other  night,  which  lighted  up  the  two 
cascades,  as  seen  from  our  piazzas,  with  most  magnificent 
effect.  They  had  a  spectral  look,  as  they  came  out  of  the 
darkness,  and  were  again  swallowed  up  in  it,  that  defies 
all  description  and  all  imagination." 

Theodore  Winthrop  visited  Niagara  in  August,  1851, 
and  wrote  (to  friends)  amusingly  of  his  experiences.  He 
lost  his  luggage  and  had  to  borrow  a  shirt ! 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  73 

Henry  David  Thoreau  was  at  Niagara  in  the  spring  of 
1 86 1,  on  his  way  to  Minnesota.  It  is  incredible  that  he  did 
not  write  of  the  Falls;  he  probably  did,  but  if  the  letter 
has  been  published  I  have  overlooked  it.  He  died  in  less 
than  a  year  after  this  first  and  only  tour  to  the  West.  His 
health  was  failing  before  he  saw  this  region. 

Edmund  Clarence  Stedman  came  to  Niagara  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1865,  and  while  there  wrote  characteristic  letters  to 
his  mother,  and  to  his  close  friend,  Bayard  Taylor.  The 
following  extract  from  a  letter  to  Taylor  shows  that  even 
poets,  if  in  poor  health  and  "out  of  sorts,"  may  find  even 
Niagara  tiresome  and  tame: 

CATARACT  HOUSE,  NIAGARA,  July  16,  1865. 

.  .  .  Well,  here  we  are,  on  our  way  to  Sault  Ste. 
Marie,  for  which  we  start  tomorrow,  and  go,  as  it  seems 
to  a  sick  man,  in  his  "moods,"  out  of  sight  and  sound  of 
humanity.  .  .  .  These  Falls  of  Niagara  improve  on 
acquaintance,  but  still,  I  feel  nothing  of  the  awe  in  their 
presence  which  greater  minds  profess  to  have  felt.  The 
fact  is,  one  can  pour  over  a  so  much  loftier  and  louder- 
sounding  torrent  in  his  soul,  that  these  seem  rather  lathery 
and  tame.  I  catch  myself  wondering  whether  all  these 
rascally  hackmen  and  publicans,  who  talk  so  loudly  of 
them,  don't,  in  their  heart  of  hearts,  think  them  a  humbug 
— a  sort  of  springe  to  catch  woodcocks.  If  this  is  the  larg- 
est thing  of  the  sort  in  the  world,  what  a  little  Peddlington 
sort  of  a  ball  this  world  is,  anyhow!  Probably,  though,  I 
see  them  too  late  in  life — (saw  them  some  years  ago,  for 
an  hour  only).  When  quite  young,  the  first  sight  of  the 
ocean  impressed  me  beyond  measure.  For  years  I  dreamed 
of  that  white  surf — the  infinite  laughters — the  unended 
gloom  behind.  Even  now  I  am  lost,  and  lifted,  by  the  sea- 
shore. There  is  nothing  like  it.  Niagara  is  measurable. 
The  roar  of  the  cataract  is  that  of  a  great  mill-dam.  But 
the  ocean  makes  you  think  it  has  no  limit.  .  .  . 


74  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

Here  at  Niagara  the  best  thing  in  my  mind  is  my 
mother's  quatrain  to  the  eagle — you  might  have  written  it — 

Where  the  great  Cataract  sends  up  to  Heaven 

Its  spraying  incense  of  perpetual  cloud, 
Thy  wings  in  twain  the  sacred  bow  have  riven, 

And  onward  sailed,  irreverently  proud! 

There  is  a  fine  swoop  and  curve  to  that  last  line.     .     .     . 

Temperament  accounts  for  much,  in  the  impressions 
made  by  Niagara  upon  visitors.  Goldwin  Smith,  who  must 
often  have  viewed  the  Falls,  says  nothing  of  them  in  his 
"Reminiscences,"  save  to  quote  (twice,  in  varying  lan- 
guage) a  remark  by  Richard  Cobden  to  a  friend  about  to 
visit  America,  and  who  asked  if  Niagara  was  worth  a 
special  journey.  Cobden's  reply  was:  "There  are  two 
sublimities  in  Nature:  one  of  rest,  the  other  of  motion; 
the  sublimity  in  rest  is  the  distant  Alps,  the  sublimity  of 
motion  is  Niagara."  Cobden's  journal  of  his  first  American 
visit,  quoted  from  in  Morley's  "Life  of  Cobden,"  has  a  long 
account  of  his  visit  to  Niagara  in  June,  1835.  "Thank 
God,"  he  exclaims,  "that  has  bestowed  on  me  health,  time 
and  means  for  reaching  this  spot,  and  the  spirit  to  kindle  at 
the  spectacle  before  me!"  His  enthusiasm  does  not  dis- 
turb his  judgment,  and  he  is  nicely  critical  in  a  rather 
amusing  fashion: 

.  .  .  The  view  from  the  platform  overhanging 
the  Horseshoe  Fall,  when  you  look  right  down  into  the 
abyss,  and  are  standing  immediately  over  the  descending 
water,  is  horrible.  I  do  not  think  people  would  take  any 
pleasure  in  being  placed  in  this  fearful  position,  unless 
others  were  looking  on,  or  unless  for  the  vain  gratification 
of  talking  about  it.  ...  We  crossed  to  the  American 
side  and  took  a  bath,  for  there  is  not  one  on  the  Canada 
side.  The  ferryman  told  us  of  a  gentleman  who  swam 
over  three  times.  I  felt  less  disposed  than  ever  to  quit  this 


VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS.  76 

spot,  so  full  of  ever-increasing  attraction.  Were  I  an 
American,  I  would  here  strive  to  build  me  a  summer  resi- 
dence. ... 

Timothy  Flint,  pioneer,  missionary,  author  and  editor, 
wrote  at  some  length  of  Niagara  Falls  before  he  had  seen 
them,  in  his  "Geography  and  History,"  etc.,  and  at  length 
in  Various  of  his  works  after  his  visit  in  1828.  His 
biographer,  John  E.  Kirkpatrick,  says  of  that  visit: 

"He  arrived  at  Niagara  Falls  at  half  past  one  at  night. 
Instead  of  going  to  bed  as  his  fellow  passengers  did,  he 
spent  the  remainder  of  the  clear  moon-lit  night  viewing 
the  Falls,  a  spectacle  which  it  had  been  almost  the  first 
remembered  wish  of  his  heart  to  see.  He  saw  it  'in  a  tem- 
perament, at  a  time  and  under  circumstances  just  such'  as 
he  would  have  chosen.  .  .  .  He  says : 

"  'He  must  have  been  obtuse  of  brain  and  of  heart 
who  could  have  thus  contemplated  this  spectacle  alone  in 
this  repose  of  nature,  under  the  light  of  the  moon,  and  the 
blue  stars  twinkling  in  the  cloudless  dome  of  the  firmament, 
and  not  have  thoughts  which  the  poverty  of  language  can 
never  clothe  in  words.'  " 

The  reader  who  seeks  a  detailed  account  of  our  region 
as  it  was  in  1828,  can  hardly  do  better  than  to  consult 
Flint's  account  of  his  visit,  contained  in  his  "Tour,"  first 
printed  in  the  Western  Monthly  Review  (Cincinnati,  1828), 
of  which  he  was  editor. 

James  T.  Fields,  in  1875,  lectured  in  St.  James  Hall, 
Buffalo — where,  by  the  way,  Dickens  read — and  had  a 
winter  view  of  Niagara  in  a  gale.  In  October,  1876,  he 
was  here  again.  "The  scene  at  the  Falls,"  he  writes,  "was 
never  more  impressive."  On  this  visit,  he  sprained  his 
ankle  in  Buffalo,  and  lectured  sitting  down.  Samuel 
Bowles,  for  many  years  editor  of  the  Springfield  (Mass.) 
Republican,  visited  the  Falls  in  1854;  the  descriptive  letters 


76  VISITORS   WHO    WROTE  BOOKS. 

which  he  then  wrote  are  to  be  found  in  his  "Life  and 
Times,"  by  George  S.  Merriam.  Chancellor  James  Kent 
visited  the  Falls  as  early  as  1802;  his  "Memoirs  and  Let- 
ters," edited  by  his  great-grandson,  William  Kent,  contains 
the  great  jurist's  impressions  of  Niagara.  William  Dean 
Howells  has  written  much  of  Niagara,  nowhere  better  than 
in  "Niagara  Revisited,"  first  published  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly,  May,  1883.  It  was  reissued  in  Chicago  the  next 
year  as  an  illustrated  book,  but  owing  to  business  compli- 
cations the  work  was  suppressed,  very  few  copies  ever 
getting  into  circulation,  the  result  being  that  this  little  book 
is  not  only  one  of  the  rarest  of  Mr.  Howells'  works,  but  one 
of  the  rarest — and  best — of  Niagarana. 

Notes  of  this  sort  could  no  doubt  be  much  extended,  but 
1  forbear.  Our  review  is  far  from  exhaustive,  and  therein 
illustrates  the  observation  that  nothing  bibliographical  is, 
ever  was  or  ever  will  be,  complete.  My  object  has  been  to 
show  what  attention  the  Niagara  region  has  received  from 
authors  who  have  visited  it.  Numerous  other  authors  I 
leave  for  mention  in  considering  other  aspects  of  our 
subject. 

It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  our  best  modern  writers 
of  Niagara  are  no  longer  content  merely  to  describe  the 
scenery.  That  is  used  as  the  background  against  which  are 
studied  the  fashions  and  foibles — the  spirit — of  the  passing 
young  man  and  woman.  And  this  brings  me  to  a  considera- 
tion of  our  home  region  and  its  literature  as  utilized  by  the 
writers  of  fiction. 


THE    NIAGARA    REGION    IN 
FICTION 


T  HAVE  sometimes  thought  it  might  not  be  wholly  un- 
•*•  profitable  to  make  a  study  of  the  fiction  of  our  country, 
in  its  relation  to  history.  From  the  earliest  development 
of  American  literature,  we  have  had  the  historical  novel ;  not 
always  so  called,  but  still  a  thing  easily  recognized,  in  spite 
of  its  manifold  forms.  Cooper's  tales,  whatever  else  they 
may  be  as  literature,  are  indubitably  historical  novels,  for 
they  present  a  fabric  of  fiction  along  with  an  attempt  to 
portray,  with  some  degree  of  fidelity,  conditions  and  types 
which  somewhere  existed,  and  which  characterized  some 
period  of  American  history. 

Once,  under  a  rash  impulse,  I  undertook  to  compile  a 
list  of  all  novels  that  could  be  grouped  according  to  definite 
periods  in  American  history.  My  zeal  soon  abated,  for  I 
found,  not  only  that  the  task,  in  its  main  outlines,  had  al- 
ready been  accomplished  by  expert  library-workers,  far 
better  than  I  could  hope  to  do  it;  but  that  there  were 
serious  difficulties  in  assigning  certain  works  to  any  particu- 
lar period.  In  the  hands  of  the  romancer,  history  ceases  to 
be  history. 

My  slight  study  of  the  subject  discovered,  among  other 
things,  that  there  is  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  story- 
tellers to  pick  out  the  war  periods  for  their  fiction.  Long 
lists  may  be  made  of  novels  dealing  with  the  French  and 

77 


78  THE  NIAGARA   REGION  IN  FICTION. 

Indian  wars,  the  Revolution,  the  War  of  1812,  the  Civil 
War;  and  in  between  these  great  epochs,  lesser  periods 
have  their  quota  of  fiction;  for  example,  Shea's  Rebellion 
in  Massachusetts,  the  Patriot  war  on  the  New  York  and 
Canada  border;  the  Fenian  invasion,  and  many  another 
episode.  Every  armed  conflict  in  our  history  is  made  to 
figure  in  some  work  of  fiction;  for  the  story-teller — the 
soft-handed  man  of  the  pen — dearly  loves  (at  his  desk)  the 
clash  of  steel  and  the  smell  of  powder.  The  periods  of 
peace  have  made  little  appeal  to  him.  In  a  few  instances, 
notably  in  the  fiction  of  recent  years,  we  have  political  strife 
substituted  for  warfare,  or  the  strain  and  rivalry  of  athletic 
contest.  There  is  significance,  too,  in  the  fact  that  many 
modern  novels  deal  with  attempts  to  get  rich  quickly,  with 
financial  and  speculative  adventures.  Even  the  trashiest  of 
these  tales  is  historical  in  the  sense  that  it  reflects  a  taste  and 
characteristic  of  the  present  day;  but  speaking  broadly,  if 
the  mise-en-scene  must  be  peaceful,  the  story-teller  gener- 
ally drops  all  attempt  at  an  avowed  historical  setting,  and  is 
wholly  occupied  with  a  romance  of  his  own  devising. 

The  Niagara  region,  rich  in  its  history,  is  by  no  means 
correspondingly  rich  in  historical  fiction.  It  would  be 
strange  indeed  if  the  romantic  actualities  of  this  unique 
river  had  not  appealed  to  those  who  invent  romance;  but 
the  inadequacy  of  the  fiction,  in  proportion  to  the  fact,  be- 
comes more  and  more  apparent  as  one  studies  it.  It  is  true 
of  fiction,  as  of  poetry,  that  its  quality  is  independent  of  the 
sublimity  or  beauty  of  natural  scenery,  or  of  the  human 
crisis,  which  may  have  inspired  it.  As  I  have  attempted  to 
show  in  another  study  ("Niagara  and  the  Poets")  it  is  in 
the  nature  of  things  that  a  nameless  brook  should  have  its 
Tennyson,  and  a  Niagara  go  unsung.  As  long  as  fiction  is 
fiction,  its  highest  quality  must  depend  on  the  subjective 


THE  NIAGARA   REGION  IN  FICTION.  79 

treatment  of  human  character.  The  physical  setting  is 
secondary. 

Regarding  as  "Niagara  region"  the  territory  through 
v/hich  our  river  runs,  and  the  adjacent  regions  which  under 
historical  or  present  conditions  have  become  associated  with 
it,  we  ask,  How  have  the  writers  of  romance  enriched  its 
literature  ? 

The  first  period  in  our  history — that  of  the  occupancy  of 
these  lands  by  aborigines  prior  to  the  sway  of  the  Iroquois, 
has  been  utilized  by  George  Alfred  Stringer  in  his  tale  "The 
King  and  the  Cross,"  wherein  conflicts  between  peoples 
more  or  less  legendary — the  so-called  Eries  or  Neuters  or 
Kah-quahs  of  whom  history  really  knows  nothing — are  set 
down  with  the  circumstantiality  of  yesterday's  ball  game. 

The  Indian  and  the  missionary  figure  in  countless  tales. 
The  earliest  published  romance  of  which  I  have  knowledge 
relating  to  the  Niagara  region,  deals  with  the  period  of 
French  occupancy  and  may  therefore  stand  next  to  "The 
King  and  the  Cross"  in  our  chronology.  This  is  the  "Aven- 
tures  du  Sieur  C.  Le  Beau,  avocat  en  parlement,  ou  voyage 
curieux  et  nouveau,  parmi  les  Sauvages  de  I'Amerique  Sep- 
tentrionale,"  etc.,  published  in  Amsterdam  in  1738.  So  far 
as  I  am  aware,  this  curious  book  has  never  been  published 
in  English.  Under  the  guise  of  his  own  adventures,  Le 
Beau  indulges  in  extraordinary  romancing.  According  to 
his  own  testimony  this  youth,  a  native  of  Rochelle,  went  to 
Paris  in  1729,  and  in  the  same  year  was  tempted  from  his 
legal  studies  into  a  voyage  to  Canada.  Shipwrecked  in  the 
St.  Lawrence,  he  reached  Quebec  in  sad  plight,  June  18, 
1729.  Finding  employment  in  the  bureau  du  castor  he  made 
his  home  with  the  Recollect  Fathers  for  more  than  a  year, 
then  ran  away  from  sober  pursuits,  and  with  two  Indians 
took  to  the  woods.  His  narrative  puts  the  time  of  his 


80  THE  NIAGARA   REGION  IN  FICTION. 

arrival  at  Niagara  in  June,  1731,  and  under  sufficiently  fan- 
tastic conditions.  He  was  accompanied  by  his  mistress,  an 
Abenaki  maiden,  with  whom  he  had  exchanged  clothes, 
resorting  to  this  and  other  disguise  to  avoid  arrest  as  a 
deserter  by  the  French.  He  makes  a  long  story  of  his  en- 
counter with  soldiers  at  Fort  Niagara,  and  of  his  final 
sanctuary  in  Seneca  villages.  Le  Beau's  book,  despite  its 
veracious  air  and  accuracy  on  some  points,  is  not  history. 
It  is  therefore  fiction.  The  author  apparently  came  to 
Canada  and  had  some  experience  among  the  Indians ;  and 
when  he  wrote  his  book,  chose  so  to  enlarge  upon  what  he 
had  really  seen  and  experienced,  still  holding  to  a  thread  of 
fact,  that  the  result  has  little  interest  as  fiction,  and  no  value 
whatever  as  history.  Travelers  who  will  write  have  been 
doing  the  same  thing,  from  Le  Beau's  day  to  this. 

There  are  many  romances  that  deal  with  La  Salle — all 
wretchedly  cheap  and  tawdry  in  comparison  with  the  actual 
romance  of  his  life.  William  Dana  Orcutt's  book,  "Robert 
Cavelier,"  is  perhaps  the  latest  attempt  to  utilize  La  Salle 
in  fiction ;  but  we  can  hardly  rate  it  as  a  successful  one. 

And  how  ignorant — or  incompetent — the  story-writers 
are!  They  seek  a  picturesque,  striking,  gallant  figure.  La 
Salle  is  all  that.  They  invent  scenes  and  incidents  utterly 
out  of  keeping  with  his  character.  And  they  one  and  all 
seem  oblivious  to  the  extraordinary  fact,  which  history 
shows,  that  for  some  four  years,  in  the  very  midst  of  his 
ardent  and  brilliant  exploits,  La  Salle  disappears,  and  of  his 
whereabouts  and  his  deeds  in  that  time  practically  nothing 
is  known.  In  September,  1669,  La  Salle  parted  from  his 
companions,  between  the  head  of  Lake  Ontario — present 
Hamilton — and  the  Grand  river.  Their  understanding  was, 
that  he  would  return  to  Montreal.  But  if  he  did,  no  record 
of  it  is  known.  He  disappears ;  nor  does  he  reappear,  so 


THE  NIAGARA   REGION  IN  FICTION.  81 

far  as  trustworthy  records  show,  until  the  autumn  of  1674, 
when  we  find  'him  reembarking  for  France.  To  be  sure, 
Perrot's  "Journal"  says  he  was  met,  with  a  company  of 
Indians,  hunting  far  up  the  Ottawa.  Others  claim  that  he 
descended  the  Ohio,  that  he  discovered  the  Mississippi,  thus 
forestalling  the  claims  of  Joliet  and  Marquette.  These  con- 
flicting claims,  unsupported  by  credible  documents,  leave 
the  matter  wholly  a  mystery.  For  at  least  two  of  the  four 
years  which  form  a  so  strange  hiatus  in  an  otherwise  glar- 
ingly-conspicuous career,  there  is  a  complete  blank.  What 
a  splendid  opportunity  for  invention — what  a  challenge  to 
the  romancer !  Can  it  be  that  the  story-tellers  acknowledge 
their  inability  to  invent  a  career  for  La  Salle  in  167071 
which  shall  be  consistent  with  the  probabilities,  and  in  keep- 
ing with  his  character?  For  the  present  we  must  leave  it 
as  one  of  the  neglected  opportunities  in  American  fiction. 

A  rather  recent  book  (1901),  dealing  cleverly  with  an 
early  period,  is  Samuel  Merwin's  tale,  "The  Road  to  Fron- 
tcnac."  It  weaves  a  romance  into  the  known  history  of  the 
Lake  Ontario  region  in  the  time  of  Denonville,  and  touches 
upon  that  soldier's  exploits  among  the  Senecas  and  on  the 
Niagara  in  1687.  But  the  interest  centers  at  the  other  end 
of  the  lake,  at  old  Fort  Frontenac,  now  Kingston. 

Of  like  character  is  Wm.  R.  A.  Wilson's  story,  "A  Rose 
of  Normandy"  (1903),  in  which  he  strives,  not  very  suc- 
cessfully, to  add  to  the  romance  with  which  history  endows 
La  Salle,  Tonty,  and  their  comrades.  "A  Daughter  of  New 
France,"  by  Mary  C.  Crowley  (1901),  deals  chiefly  with 
Cadillac  and  the  founding  of  Detroit,  but  relates  somewhat 
to  our  region,  and  is  written  with  most  admirable  knowledge 
of  the  history  of  the  period.  Here  perhaps  may  be  men- 
tioned Mary  Hartwell  Catherwood's  "The  Story  of  Tonty," 
and  William  O.  Stoddard's  "On  the  Old  Frontier." 


82  THE  NIAGARA   REGION   IN  FICTION. 

A  fair  maid,  a  rough  soldier,  a  few  bloody  deeds  and 
tense  adventures,  and  the  inevitable  outcome  of  a  much-dis- 
turbed wooing — all  told  with  singular  affectation  of  sup- 
posed archaic  speech — these  are  the  essential  and  unvarying 
materials  from  which  this  kind  of  fiction  is  concocted. 

James  Fenimore  Cooper  must  have  recognition  in  our 
local  fiction.  "The  Pathfinder,"  the  sub-title  of  which  is 
"The  Inland  Sea,"  is  a  tale  of  Lake  Ontario  during  the  old 
French  war,  with  Niagara  episodes.  "The  Spy,"  a  part  of 
which  was  written  at  Lewiston,  is  a  ta'le  of  the  Revolution, 
the  scene  of  action  being  principally  in  Westchester  county, 
but  it  includes  an  episode  of  the  War  of  1812  on  the 
Niagara.  In  much  the  same  way  a  very  different  sort  of 
Niagara  episode  during  the  War  of  1812  is  introduced  in 
Charles  Lever's  rollicking  "Confessions  of  Harry  Lor- 
requer." 

The  historical  novels  of  Major  John  Richardson  relate 
chiefly  to  the  region  of  the  Lakes,  the  Detroit,  and,  in  less 
degree,  to  the  Niagara.  Born  at  Queenston  in  1796,  Rich- 
ardson was  truly  a  son  of  the  Niagara  region,  though  most 
of  his  life  was  spent  away  from  it.  In  his  "Eight  Years  in 
Canada"  he  gives  us  a  touching  account  of  his  experiences 
and  emotions  on  revisiting  his  old  home  on  the  Niagara,  in 
1838.  His  most  famous  novel,  "Wacousta,"  is  a  tale  of 
Pontiac's  War.  The  Niagara  region  figures  more  in  "The 
Canadian  Brothers,"  first  published  in  Montreal  in  1840. 
One  episode  in  it  gives  us  the  story  of  the  battle  of  Queens- 
ton,  and,  naturally  enough,  there  is  a  glorification  of 
British  arms.  Seeking  a  wider  market,  Richardson  repub- 
Hshed  this  story  in  New  York,  changing  the  title  to 
"Matilda  Montgomerie,"  and  leaving  out  the  Queenston 
episode — a  pitiable  subversion  of  the  dignity  of  authorship 
to  the  needs  of  the  author.  The  theory  of  course  was  that 


THE  NIAGARA   REGION  IN  FICTION.  83 

citizens  of  the  United  States  would  not  buy  a  story  that 
sympathized  with  the  triumph  of  the  British  at  Queenston. 
We  are  all  quite  as  absurd  in  some  of  our  "theories"  and 
prejudices,  today. 

In  "Matilda  Montgomerie"  a  chapter  or  so  is  devoted  to 
adventures  in  the  vicinity  of  Buffalo — which  Sambo,  one 
of  the  characters,  calls  "Bubbalo  town."  Although  Rich- 
ardson is  praised  for  the  excellence  of  his  style,  no  one  not 
imbued  with  the  antiquarian  taste,  is  likely  to  be  attracted 
to  his  pages. 

Our  region  has  not  been  wholly  overlooked  by  the  dra- 
matists. The  old  French  tragedy  of  "  Hirza"  opens  at 
Niagara  Falls.  I  regret  that  I  cannot  name  the  author,  nor, 
with  precision,  the  date  of  production.  Written  in  the 
stately  verse  of  Racine,  it  belongs  alike  to  the  fiction  and 
the  poetry  of  our  region : 

"Triste  Niagara,  sejour  craint  de  nos  Dieux  ; 
Rocs  menagants,  et  vous,  6  torrents  furieux, 
Qui,  des  monts  inegaux  couvrant  les  vastes  cimes, 
Tombez  en  mugissant  d'abimes  en  abimes, 
Devant  vous  fut  brise  le  calumet,  de  paix";  etc. 

It  deals  with  the  wars  of  the  Iroquois  and  the  Illinois, 
and  with  the  armed  encroachments  of  the  French  and 
English;  and  in  its  heroics  and  grandiloquence  is  about  as 
far  as  possible  from  a  true  depiction  of  the  American 
aborigine. 

More  than  one  drama  has  been  written — and  acted — the 
scene  of  which  was  at  least  in  part  at  Niagara.  Of  this 
class  was  "The  Battle  of  Chippewa,"  which  a  traveling 
Buffalonian  saw  enacted  at  New  Orleans  in  1822.  Still 
another,  "A  Trip  to  Niagara,"  etc.,  a  three-act  farce,  was 
written  in  1830  for  the  Bowery  Theater,  New  York,  by 
William  Dunlap,  dramatist,  lecturer,  historian,  portrait 


84  THE  NIAGARA   REGION  IN  FICTION. 

painter  and  founder  of  the  National  Academy  of  Design. 
"A  Trip  to  Niagara"  brings  the  characters  to  Buffalo, 
where  one  of  them,  an  Englishman,  exclaims:  "So,  this  is 
Buffalo !  And  I'm  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie !  And  what 
do  I  see  after  all :  A  town  like  other  towns,  water  like  other 
water,  and  people  like  other  people — only  made  worse  by 
democracy.  I  have  not  seen  a  well-behaved  man  since  I 
came  into  the  country,  only  a  wild  half  Indian."  There  is 
a  scene  at  a  Buffalo  hotel,  and  another  at  the  Falls,  where 
Cooper's  Leather-Stocking  soliloquizes:  "This  looks  as  it 
used  to  do,  they  can't  spoil  this,  yet  a  while."  To  judge 
from  the  printed  play,  "A  Trip  to  Niagara,"  was  a  tame 
entertainment,  even  when  helped  out,  as  it  no  doubt  was, 
with  as  effective  a  display  of  scenery  as  the  artist-author 
could  devise. 

Here,  too,  should  have  mention  "La  Catarata  del  Ni- 
agara" a  three-act  drama,  in  verse,  by  Don  Vicente  Riva 
Palacio,  perhaps  in  collaboration  with  Don  Juan  A.  Mateos. 
It  is  contained  in  the  joint  publication  of  their  dramatic 
works,  issued  in  Mexico  City,  1871.  The  first  and  second 
acts  are  set  in  Mexico,  in  the  house  of  one  Dona  Rosa;  the 
third  act  shifts  to  Niagara,  the  time  being  1847. 

A  considerable  shelf,  perhaps  five  feet  long,  could  be 
filled  with  stories  of  the  War  of  1812.  My  studies  of 
American  history  have  well  nigh  convinced  me  that  that 
war  was  fought,  not  to  maintain  our  rights  on  the  high  seas, 
but  to  stimulate  the  development  of  American  letters  by 
supplying  picturesque  material  for  budding  romancers.  The 
only  drawback  to  that  theory  is  that  the  straightforward 
unadorned  record  of  the  old  sea  duels,  like  that  of  the  Con- 
stitution and  the  Guerriere,  has  more  thrills  in  it  than  the 
romancers  can  invent.  But  for  well-nigh  a  century,  the 
novelists  have  hovered  about  this  period,  like  bumble-bees 


THE  NIAGARA   REGION  IN  FICTION.  85 

in  a  field  of  clover.  The  war  on  the  Lakes  and  the  Niagara 
frontier  has  had  a  share  of  their  attention.  There  are  boys' 
books  with  Perry  for  hero — always  with  the  introduction 
of  things  more  or  less  impossible  to  the  character.  The 
events  of  1812-' 14  on  the  Niagara  have  been  much  used  by 
Canadian  story-writers.  There  is  "Hemlock,"  by  Robert 
Sellars  (Montreal,  1890),  which  follows  many  of  the  events 
of  the  war  in  our  district,  and  is  none  the  less  worthy 
because  its  point  of  view  and  sympathies  are  so  notably 
Canadian.  A  work  of  greater  merit  is  "Neville  Trueman, 
the  Pioneer  Preacher,  a  Tale  of  1812,"  by  W.  H.  Withrow, 
published  in  Toronto  in  1886.  The  fictitious  characters 
mingle  with  the  real,  at  Queenston  Heights,  Fort  George, 
the  burning  of  Niagara,  Chippewa  and  Lundy's  Lane.  It 
is  a  simple  tale,  with  no  affectations ;  and  it  makes  a  record 
v/hich  we  are  glad  to  have  of  high  character  and  worthy 
impulses.  There  were  true  patriots  in  Canada  in  those  days, 
and  it  is  wholesome  to  read  of  them,  no  matter  on  which 
side  of  the  river  one  may  live.  In  this  class  belongs  Amy  E. 
Blanchard's  tale,  "A  Loyal  Lass,  a  Story  of  the  Niagara 
Campaign  of  1814."  The  list  might  be  much  extended. 

There  is  a  considerable  group  of  books,  mostly  by  British 
writers,  which  should  have  place  in  our  review.  In  the 
guise  of  fiction,  they  chronicle  the  condition  of  things  in 
Upper  Canada  and  the  Niagara  District,  during  the  early 
years  of  settlement.  Such  a  work  is  John  Gait's  three-vol- 
ume novel,  "Bogle  Corbet,  or  the  Emigrants,"  published  in 
London  in  1831.  I  believe  too  that  "Laurie  Todd,"  Gait's 
most  famous  novel,  touches  more  or  less  the  Niagara 
neighborhood. 

The  exploits  of  the  Patriot  War  on  this  border,  as  told 
by  most  historians,  certainly  contain  much  fiction,  for  no 
two  chroniclers  agree.  I  recall  however  but  one  avowed 


86  THE  NIAGARA   REGION  IN   FICTION. 

romance  with  that  affair  as  its  theme — "The  Prisoner  of  the 
Border,  a  Tale  of  1838,"  by  P.  Hamilton  Myers.  Half  a 
century  ago,  when  this  story  was  published,  Myers  had 
great  vogue  and  his  stories  were  popular. 

There  are  many  novels  which  touch  this  region  in  some 
degree.  H.  A.  Stanley's  stirring  tale,  "The  Backwoods- 
man," is  a  pretty  successful  treatment  of  the  old  New  York 
frontier  during  the  Revolution,  and  deals  with  Indians  and 
white  men  who  belong  to  our  local  history.  Judge  Tour- 
gee's  "Button's  Inn"  is  a  tale  of  the  old  Chautauqua  portage. 
C.  R.  Edwards'  "Story  of  Niagara,"  published  nearly  forty 
years  ago,  is  an  attempt  to  put  into  fiction  some  of  the  fron- 
tier smuggling  experiences;  and  "Where  Waters  Beckon," 
by  Joanna  E.  Wood  (1902),  is  a  sickly  sentimental  offering, 
dealing  with  so-called  love,  soul-affinities,  a  retreat  in  the 
woods  of  Foster's  Plats,  otherwise  Niagara  Glen,  and  a  few 
suicides.  It  is  a  story  of  Buffalo  as  well  as  of  Niagara,  but 
we  can  make  no  boast  on  that.  The  tragic  story  of  Francis 
Abbott,  a  recluse  who  lived  for  a  time  on  one  of  the  islands 
above  the  Falls,  and  was  drowned  in  1829,  has  been  written, 
not  only  by  James  Bird,  in  a  trustworthy  narrative,  but  also 
by  "the  author  of  'Mettallak,'  as  a  work  of  fiction  founded 
on  fact,"  entitled  "Francis  Abbott,  or  the  Hermit  of  Ni- 
agara, a  Tale  of  the  Old  and  New  World."  (Boston,  1846.) 

Even  the  Erie  Canal  has  its  romances.  If  I  remember 
aright,  some  of  J.  T.  Trowbridge's  juvenile  tales  deal  with 
his  own  youthful  experiences  on  the  canal  in  Western  New 
York.  But  the  classic  in  this  field  is  perhaps  "Marco  Paul's 
voyages  and  travels  on  the  Erie  Canal"  (New  York,  1852), 
one  of  Jacob  Abbott's  once  popular  series  of  juveniles,  of  a 
sort  long  out  of  favor ;  yet  it  would  be  hard  to  find  a  more 
vivid  account  of  packet-boat  travel  on  the  Erie  canal  than  is 
given  in  this  quaint  little  volume. 


THE  NIAGARA   REGION  IN  FICTION.  87 

A  noteworthy  romance  of  our  region  is  "La  Virgen  del 
Niagara,"  by  Jose  Rivera  y  Rio,  published,  an  octavo  of 
592  pages! — in  Mexico  in  1871.  Well  known  are  Mrs. 
Julia  Ditto  Young's  tale,  "Adrift,  a  story  of  Niagara,"  pub- 
lished in  1889 ;  and  Mrs.  Linda  de  K.  Fulton's  "Nadia,  the 
Maid  of  the  Mist,"  also  a  story  of  Niagara  published  in 
1901.  Israel  Zangwill's  volume  of  "Ghetto  Tragedies," 
"They  that  Walk  in  Darkness,"  contains  "Noah's  Ark"  (first 
published  in  Lip  pine  ott's),  a  story  into  which  are  woven, 
for  the  most  part  with  a  fair  degree  of  accuracy,  the  prin- 
cipal facts  regarding  Major  Mordecai  Manuel  Noah's  pro- 
posed City  of  Refuge  for  Jews  on  Grand  Island.  E.  W. 
Thomson's  "John  Bedell,  U.  E.  Loyalist,"  is  a  slight  story, 
the  scene  being  laid  on  the  Niagara. 

Of  juveniles  which  touch  our  region,  or  have  their  scenes 
largely  laid  hereabouts,  there  are  many.  There  is  "Emily 
and  Clara's  Trip  to  Niagara  Falls,"  by  the  editor  of  "The 
Youth's  Casket,"  the  story  being  published  in  Buffalo  in 
1864.  Of  wider  fame  was  "The  Rapids  of  Niagara,"  a 
duodecimo  of  436  pages,  by  Susan  Warner,  author  of  "The 
Wide  Wide  World,"  a  famous  old  story  in  its  day.  "The 
Rapids  of  Niagara,"  of  the  goody-goody  variety,  is  volume 
six  in  Miss  Warner's  "Say  and  Do  series."  She  brings  her 
characters  to  Niagara,  and  embellishes  the  highly  moral 
tale  with  a  full-page  view  of  the  falls. 

Of  a  more  virile  sort  are  several  boys'  books  of  recent 
years.  I  note  Edward  Stratemeyer's  "Marching  on  Ni- 
agara, or  the  Soldier  Boys  of  the  Old  Frontier" ;  several  of 
the  books  in  Everett  T.  Tomlinson's  "War  of  1812"  series; 
"Oliver  Optic's"  "Out  West,  or  Roughing  it  on  the  Great 
Lakes,"  "Through  by  Daylight,  or  the  Young  Engineer  of 
the  Lake  Shore  Railroad,"  etc.,  etc.  Some  of  the  old-time 
"yellow-covered  literature" — the  dime  novels  of  our  boy- 


88  THE  NIAGARA   REGION  IN  FICTION. 

hood — were  of  this  class.  In  later  years  the  limit  was  per- 
haps reached  in  "The  Adventures  of  Uncle  Jeremiah  and 
Family  at  the  Pan-American  Exposition,"  by  "Paul  Pry, 
Jr.,"  which  delectable  creation  of  the  literary  art  opens  with 
the  cheerful  slogan,  "Put  me  off  at  Buffalo!" 

Of  short  stories,  with  the  scene  laid  at  the  Falls  or  on 
Lake  Erie,  there  are  so  many  that  I  make  no  attempt  to 
enumerate  them.  I  must,  too,  ignore  in  this  review  the  con- 
siderable number  of  "Indian  legends,"  mostly  invented  by 
writers  of  Caucasian  blood,  who  have  thought  the  great 
cataract  a  fit  place  for  "legends,"  and  have  concocted  them 
to  meet  the  supposed  demand.  One  of  the  latest  and  best 
productions  of  this  character  is  a  dainty  little  volume  by 
Paul  Cams :  "The  Chief's  Daughter,  a  legend  of  Niagara" 
(Chicago,  1901). 

One  of  the  most  extraordinary  works  of  fiction  I  have 
ever  seen,  "The  Canadian  Girl,  or  the  Pirate  of  the  Lakes, 
a  Story  of  the  Affections,  by  the  Authoress  of  'The  Jew's 
Daughter,' "  was  published  in  London,  with  steel-plate 
engravings,  in  1838.  In  its  pages  may  be  found  all  the 
emotions,  all  the  virtues,  and  especially  all  the  vices,  iniqui- 
ties and  atrocities  of  evil,  known  to  man.  The  Pirate  was 
a  bad  man,  as  no  doubt  a  good  pirate  should  be,  but  he 
always  talked — I  mean,  conversed — in  the  polished  English 
of  Pope  and  Addison.  I  despair  of  giving  any  idea  of  the 
plot,  short  of  quoting  the  whole  book,  and  as  it  has  716 
pages,  that  might  disturb  my  own  book-making  plans.  I 
can  merely  call  attention  to  certain  passages  which  make 
"The  Canadian  Girl"  a  part  of  our  local  literature. 

It  is  edifying  to  read,  of  the  Niagara,  that  "the  country 
through  which  the  river  flows  is  more  populous,  and  in  a 
higher  state  of  cultivation,  than  any  other  part  of  North 
America.  Its  wild  fruits  are  abundant,  and  of  the  rarest 


THE  NIAGARA   REGION  IN  FICTION.  89 

and  finest  sorts,  and  the  salubrious  nature  of  the  climate 
is  seen  in  the  healthy  countenances  of  the  inhabitants." 
This  is  truly  gratifying  to  local  pride,  though  we  remember 
that  Audubon  thought  the  people  hereabouts  "lank  and 
sallow."  Some  pages  of  scenic  description  are  offered, 
punctuated  with  the  emotions  of  the  characters  in  the  story. 
Of  Lady  Hester,  for  example,  we  are  assured  that  at 
Niagara  Falls, 

"her  eye  scarce  knew  where  to  rest — she  was  astounded. 
The  gigantic  liquid  sheet  of  emerald  and  of  silver,  'horribly 
beautiful!' — its  semicircular  front,  nearly  three-quarters  of 
a  mile  broad,  grandly  shrouded  by  revolving  columns  of 
mist  that  rose  perpetually  from  the  thundering  gulf — in- 
spired her  with  sublime  admiration." 

Lady  Hester  spreads  her  surprise  and  admiration  over 
several  pages ;  while  Letitia,  the  fair  and  tender  Letitia, 

"after  the  first  surprise  and  enchantment  had  a  little  sub- 
sided in  her  youthful  breast,  was  eminently  pleased  with  the 
sight  of  thousands  of  water-fowl,  who,  coming  from  north- 
ern lands  in  search  of  a  milder  climate,  swam,  or  flew  on 
whistling  wings  a  little  over,  the  Niagara  river  to  the  brink 
of  the  Falls,  there  advancing  in  the  air  about  the  mists 
fronting  the  stupendous  sheet  of  water,  and  lingering  in  the 
neighborhood  with  evident  joy  and  wonder ;  ducks  of  many 
species,  the  teal,  the  widgeon,  the  shallard,  and  the  swan, 
were  among  these  migratory  birds.  .  .  .  Frequently 
were  some  of  the  interesting  creatures  borne  down  by  the 
glassy  current  into  the  gulf  and  drowned.  Letitia  particu- 
larly grieved  for  two  noble  swans,  which  came  on  boldly 
past  Goat  Island,  then  became  entangled  in  the  confused 
and  dashing  waves  of  the  rapids,  and  were  presently  pre- 
cipitated together  over  the  precipice.  She  was  in  tears,  but 
a  fresh  succession  of  novel  objects  rendered  her  regret  no 
more  than  momentary." 


90  THE  NIAGARA   REGION  IN  FICTION. 

"The  Earl,  who  had  little  relish  for  the  sublimities  of 
nature,  had  chiefly  interested  himself  with  calculating  the 
altitude  of  the  two  cataracts  and  their  curvilinear  length, 
and  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  these  great  falls  were  not 
so  large  as  many  others  in  different  parts  of  the  world,  he 
decided  that  they  had  no  particular  claim  to  praise" — a 
highly  original  conclusion.  The  geographical  knowledge 
shown  by  our  author  is  full  of  surprising  revelations.  For 
example,  note  this  passage : 

"The  strong  steamer,  in  which  were  the  pursuers  of  the 
Pirate,  had  been  all  this  time  beating  about  Lake  Erie,  it 
having  been  supposed  that  he  was  hiding  about  some  of 
the  promontories  on  the  coast,  which  indeed  was  really  the 
case.  The  Fearless  [the  pirate  craft]  moved  only  by  night 
on  the  lake.  .  .  .  But  now  the  hunted  vessel  had  been 
driven  near  the  mouth  of  the  lake,  where  the  American 
beach  was  extremely  wild,  presenting  a  dark  and  gloomy 
picture;  huge  black  rocks,  like  the  shattered  ruins  of  a 
sterile  world,  lay  scattered  in  naked  majesty  many  suc- 
cessive miles  along  the  side  of  the  lake,  whose  waters 
rushed  in  between  them,  and  lashed  their  barren  sides  with 
furious  and  unceasing  roar.  Behind,  was  spread  a  country 
no  less  wild  and  stern." 

This,  the  reader  is  reminded,  is  a  description  of  the 
shore  in  the  vicinity  of  Buffalo ;  dost  recognize  the  portrait  ? 

Not  long  ago,  on  a  book-hunting  excursion,  I  lighted  on 
what  I  am  inclined  to  hold  as  the  gem  of  all  Niagara  region 
fiction — a  trim  little  book  of  the  old-fashioned  demi-octavo 
size — just  right  for  the  coat  pocket — bound  in  shabby 
leather,  and  printed  at  Exeter — I  don't  know  what  Exeter — 
in  1831,  with  this  title:  "Tonnewonte,  or  The  Adopted  Son 
of  America.  A  tale,  containing  scenes  from  Real  Life,  by 
an  American."  Soon  after,  I  ran  across  an  earlier,  very 
likely  the  original,  edition,  printed  at  Watertown,  N.  Y.,  in 


THE   NIAGARA   REGION  IN  FICTION.  91 

1825.  Here  is  one  of  the  very  rare  local  Americana,  which, 
for  many  years,  I  had  never  so  much  as  heard  of ;  then,  in 
widely  different  places,  within  a  few  months  of  each  other, 
I  find  two  different  editions!  So  it  goes  in  this  sport  of 
book-hunting. 

Would  that  I  knew  the  identity  of  "An  American,"  that 
I  might  hang  a  lasting  wreath  on  her — I'm  sure  it's  her — 
tombstone.  The  English  is  of  the  dear  old  style,  in  which 
all  the  characters  converse  under  all  circumstances  in 
finished  phrases  of  perfect  propriety.  In  these  pages  the 
sun  never  sets;  but  frequently  "the  fiery  luminary  sinks 
beneath  the  western  horizon."  A  character  is  introduced, 
not  after  drinking  tea,  but  "after  partaking  the  refreshing 
beverage  imported  through  such  perils  from  the  East,  that 
herb  so  famous  in  the  annals  of  American  independence." 
There  you  have  a  fine  literary  way  of  saying  tea. 

The  story  opens  in  New  York  City  in  the  autumn  of 
1776  with  an  incident  of  the  yellow  fever  scourge  of  that 
year.  A  French  child,  bereft  and  abandoned,  becomes  the 
protege  of  an  American  family  who,  after  various  domestic 
adventures  of  no  consequence,  migrate  in  1807  into  the 
valley  of  the  Tonawanda  in  Western  New  York.  There  is 
something  of  worth  in  the  story  of  this  migration ;  the 
author  evidently  follows  in  some  essentials  the  actual  experi- 
ences of  families  known  to  him — or  her.  Beyond  Utica — 
"an  inconsiderable  village" — "the  road  began  to  grow  wild 
indeed!  It  was  cut  through  the  wilderness,  while  on  each 
side  of  them  arose  in  sombre  majesty  the  immense  trees  of 
the  forest,  some  of  which  had  probably  been  growing  since 
the  first  subsiding  of  the  deluge."  They  fall  in  with  an  Irish 
pedlar — or,  to  be  more  faithful  to  our  author's  style,  "a 
pedlar  whose  brogue  declared  him  a  native  of  Hibernia" — 
who  being  on  his  way  to  Buffalo,  undertakes  to  help  them 


92  THE  NIAGARA   REGION  IN  FICTION. 

on  their  road  to  Tonnewante.  In  the  new  home,  crude 
frontier  conditions  become  well  nigh  idyllic.  The  hero,  the 
French  foundling  of  early  years,  Theodore  de  Clermont 
(there's  a  Tonawanda  name  for  you!)  just  naturally  falls 
in  love  with  the  forest  flower,  Evelina.  Although  the  au- 
thor does  not  speak  of  her  as  a  young  woman,  but  as  an 
amiable  female  or  lovely  being,  she  was,  I  think,  the  bona- 
fide  "Sweet  Evelina"  for  whom  in  youthful  days  we  have 
all  declared,  in  more  or  less  mellifluous  accents,  that  our 
love  would  never-never-die.  But  alas!  just  as  the  love  of 
Theodore  and  Evelina  seeems  about  to  be  consummated, 
Theo's  long-lost  father  arrives,  en  tour  to  Niagara,  and  the 
young  man  is  taken  back  to  France.  There  he  struggles  on 
through  a  hundred  pages  all  cluttered  up  with  marquises, 
counts  and  viscounts,  estates  lost  and  regained,  and  especially 
tangled  with  the  ensnaring  wiles  of  Mademoiselle  Sophia 
des  Abbayes.  It  does  look  for  a  few  chapters  as  though 
this  lovely  female  would  make  a  Tonawanda  old  maid  out 
of  Evelina;  but  the  author  knew  all  along  that  the  noble 
Theodore  de  Clermont  would  renounce  lands  and  ladies, 
and  returning  to  Tonawanda,  after  a  few  adventures,  say 
to  Evelina,  as  he  takes  her  hand :  "Could  I  but  be  assured 
of  possessing  this,  with  the  approbation  and  blessing  of  our 
indulgent  father,  earth,  I  would  not  envy  thee,  all  thou 
hadst  else  to  bestow."  He  says  a  page  or  two  more  in  the 
same  pure  Tonawanda  dialect,  and  Evelina  melts  into  his 
embrace.  The  historical  character  of  the  romance  is  main- 
tained, in  the  last  chapter,  by  the  statement  that  "the  execu- 
tion of  the  proposed  canal  has  greatly  enhanced  the  value  of 
their  property,  and  Mr.  de  Clermont  is  not  only  one  of  the 
happiest  men  in  the  State  of  New  York,  but  bids  fair  also 
to  be  one  of  the  wealthiest  landholders  in  the  Union."  A 
beautiful  touch  appears  on  the  last  page,  where  we  read  that 


THE  NIAGARA   REGION  IN  FICTION.  93 

"Col.  de  Clermont  is  thought  of  as  a  candidate  for  Con- 
gress." Could  anything,  in  history  or  fiction,  be  more 
American ! 

It  was  Frank  Norris,  you  may  remember,  who  in  the 
opening  paragraph  of  his  story,  "The  House  with  the 
Blinds,"  wrote  that  some  cities  were  places  where  things 
could  happen — "cities  that  have  come  to  be  picturesque — 
that  offer  opportunities  in  the  matter  of  background  and 
local  color."  In  his  view,  "there  are  just  three  big  cities  in 
the  United  States  that  are  story  cities" — New  York,  of 
course,  New  Orleans,  and,  best  of  the  lot,  San  Francisco. 
"Fancy  a  novel,"  he  adds,  "about  Chicago,  or  Buffalo,  let 
us  say,  or  Nashville,  Tennessee."  And  do  you  remember 
how  "O.  Henry,"  happiest  of  modern  short  story-writers, 
"took  him  up,"  and  wrote  a  splendid  story  of  Nashville, 
exclaiming  at  the  end  of  it,  as  by  way  of  challenge :  "Has 
anything  happened  at  Buffalo?"  Oh,  for  an  "O.  Henry," 
or  a  Frank  Norris,  to  make  them  happen.  That  Norris 
later  wrote  a  very  famous  novel — "The  Pit" — about 
Chicago,  is  ground  for  encouragement  that  even  Buffalo 
may  yet  inspire  the  romancer — or  rather,  let  us  say,  may 
furnish  the  not  wholly  unromantic  setting  for  the  story- 
teller who  brings  his  inspiration  to  bear  upon  Buffalo. 

This  city  is  indeed  not  wholly  barren  in  romance.  If  I 
remember  rightly,  Elbert  Hubbard1  made  it  the  scene  of  his 
early  story,  "The  Man,"  and  made  Police  Justice  King, 
under  thin  disguise,  a  character  in  it.  Robert  Barr's  story 
of  the  Fenian  invasion  of  Canada  in  1866,  "In  the  Midst  of 
Alarms,"  opens  "in  the  marble-floored  vestibule  of  the  Met- 
ropolitan Grand  Hotel  in  Buffalo."  An  early  novel  on  the 
same  theme,  and  one  of  some  historical  value,  is  "Ridgway," 
by  "Scian  Dubh,"  the  nom-de-plume  I  believe  of  a  Buffalo 
Irishman  named  McCarroll.  "Ridgway,"  which  was  pub- 


94  THE  NIAGARA   REGION  IN  FICTION. 

lished  in  this  city  in  1868,  is  genuinely  a  Buffalo  book ;  and 
although  no  high  quality  can  be  claimed  for  it  as  a  romance, 
it  has  the  great  excellence  of  fidelity  to  the  spirit  and  temper 
of  the  time  with  which  it  is  concerned. 

Were  I  asked  to  give  precedence  to  any  one  work  of 
fiction  dealing  with  the  Niagara  region  I  should  think  first 
of  Chateaubriand's  "Atala."  Artificial  to  the  last  degree, 
opposed  to  every  tenet  of  the  realistic  school,  no  more 
resembling  fact  than  moonlight  resembles  the  day,  it  is  none 
the  less  a  vivid  poetic  masterpiece.  But  with  "Atala"  aside, 
I  should  come  down  to  very  modern  days,  and  hesitate 
between  "Their  Pilgrimage,"  by  Charles  Dudley  Warner, 
and  "Their  Wedding  Journey,"  by  William  Dean  Howells. 
Mark  Twain's  remarkable  contribution  to  Niagara  litera- 
ture— the  "First  Authentic  Mention  of  Niagara  Falls,"  being 
extracts  from  Adam's  Diary — I  am  not  forgetting,  but  I 
am  willing  to.  But  both  Warner  and  Howells  are  a  delight. 
Both  employ  the  same  method — they  use  the  Niagara  set- 
ting as  a  background  upon  which  they  study  the  foibles  and 
characteristics  of  everyday  people.  And  see  how  Warner 
vividly  pictures  the  scene,  but  all  incidentally,  as  a  back- 
ground for  the  romance  of  his  lovers : 

"When  they  returned  the  moon  was  coming  up,  rising 
and  struggling  and  making  its  way  slowly  through  ragged 
masses  of  colored  clouds.  The  river  could  be  plainly  seen 
now,  smooth,  deep,  treacherous ;  the  falls  on  the  American 
side  showed  fitfully  like  patches  of  light  and  foam ;  the 
Horseshoe,  mostly  hidden  by  a  cold  silver  mist,  occasion- 
ally loomed  up  a  white  and  ghostly  mass.  They  stood  for 
a  long  time  looking  down  at  the  foot  of  the  American  Fall, 
the  moon  now  showing  clearly  the  plunge  of  the  heavy 
column — a  column  as  stiff  as  if  it  were  melted  silver — 
hushed  and  frightened  by  the  weird  and  appalling  scene. 
They  did  not  know  at  that  moment  that  there  where  their 


THE  NIAGARA   REGION  IN  FICTION.  95 

eyes  were  riveted,  there  at  the  base  of  the  fall,  a  man's 
body  was  churning  about,  plunged  down  and  cast  up,  and 
beaten  and  whirled,  imprisoned  in  the  refluent  eddy.  But  a 
body  was  there.  In  the  morning  a  man's  overcoat  was  found 
or.  the  parapet  at  the  angle  of  the  fall.  Some  of  them  re- 
membered that  in  the  evening,  just  before  the  park  gate 
closed,  he  had  seen  a  man  approach  the  angle  of  the  wall 
where  the  overcoat  was  found.  The  man  was  never  seen 
after  that.  Night  first,  and  then  the  hungry  water,  swal- 
lowed him.  One  pictures  the  fearful  leap  into  the  dark, 
the  midway  repentance,  perhaps,  the  despair  of  the  plunge. 
A  body  cast  in  here  is  likely  to  tarry  for  days,  eddying  round 
and  round,  and  tossed  in  that  terrible  maelstrom,  before  a 
chance  current  ejects  it,  and  sends  it  down  the  fierce  rapids 
below. 

"The  walk  around  Goat  Island  is  probably  unsurpassed 
in  the  world  for  wonder  and  beauty.  The  Americans  have 
every  reason  to  be  satisfied  with  their  share  of  the  fall ; 
they  get  nowhere  one  single  grand  view  like  that  from  the 
Canada  side,  but  infinitely  the  deepest  impression  of 
majesty  and  power  is  obtained  on  Goat  Island.  There  the 
spectator  is  in  the  midst  of  the  war  of  nature.  From  the 
point  over  the  Horseshoe  Fall  our  friends,  speaking  not 
much,  but  more  and  more  deeply  moved,  strolled  along  in 
the  lovely  forest,  in  a  rural  solemnity,  in  a  local  calm, 
almost  a  seclusion,  except  for  the  ever-present  shuddering 
roar  in  the  air.  On  the  shore  above  the  Horseshoe  they 
first  comprehended  the  breadth,  the  great  sweep,  of  the 
rapids.  The  white  crests  of  the  waves  in  the  west  were 
coming  out  from  under  a  black,  lowering  sky ;  all  the  fore- 
ground was  in  bright  sunlight,  dancing,  sparkling,  leaping, 
hurrying  on,  converging  to  the  angle  where  the  water  be- 
comes a  deep  emerald  at  the  break  and  plunge.  The  rapids 
above  are  a  series  of  shelves,  bristling  with  jutting  rocks 
and  lodged  trunks  of  trees,  and  the  wildness  of  the  scene 
is  intensified  by  the  ragged  fringe  of  evergreens  on  the 
opposite  shore.  Over  the  whole  island  the  mist,  rising  from 
the  caldron,  drifts  in  spray  when  the  wind  is  favorable ;  but 


%  THE  NIAGARA   REGION  IN  FICTION. 

on  this  day  the  forest  was  bright  and  cheerful,  and  as  the 
strollers  went  farther  away  from  the  Great  Fall,  the  beauty 
of  the  scene  began  to  steal  away  its  terror.  The  roar  was 
still  dominant,  but  far  off  and  softened,  and  did  not  crush 
the  ear.  The  triple  islands,  the  Three  Sisters,  in  their  pic- 
turesque wildness  appeared  like  playful  freaks  of  nature 
in  a  momentary  relaxation  of  the  savage  mood.  Here  is 
the  finest  view  of  the  river;  to  one  standing  on  the  outer- 
most island  the  great  flood  seems  tumbling  out  of  the  sky. 
They  continued  along  the  bank  of  the  river.  The  shallow 
stream  races  by  headlong,  but  close  to  the  edge  are  numerous 
eddies,  and  places  where  one  might  step  in  and  not  be  swept 
away.  At  length  they  reached  the  point  where  the  river 
divides,  and  the  water  stands  for  an  instant  almost  still, 
hesitating  whether  to  take  the  Canadian  or  American 
plunge.  Out  a  little  way  from  the  shore  the  waves  leap  and 
tumble,  and  the  two  currents  are  like  race-horses  parted  on 
two  ways  to  the  goal.  Just  at  this  point  the  water  swirls 
and  lingers,  having  lost  all  its  fierceness  and  haste,  and 
spreads  itself  out  placidly,  dimpling  in  the  sun.  It  may  be 
a  treacherous  pause,  this  water  may  be  as  cruel  as  that 
which  rages  below  and  exults  in  catching  a  boat  or  a  man 
and  bounding  with  the  victim  over  the  cataract;  but  the 
calm  was  very  grateful  to  the  stunned  and  buffeted  visitors ; 
upon  their  jarred  nerves  it  was  like  the  peace  of  God." 

In  the  work  of  both  Howells  and  Warner,  the  poet,  the 
artist  and  the  humorist  always  contend,  and  the  outcome  is 
not  merely  vivid  word-painting,  but  a  just  and  genial 
philosophy.  I  find  nothing  worthier  in  the  fiction  of  our 
region. 


A   DREAMER  AT   NIAGARA 


TN  1791  a  young  Frenchman  landed  at  Baltimore,  hastened 
•*•  by  stage  over  a  bad,  newly-made  road  to  Philadelphia, 
and  sojourned  a  week  at  an  inn,  awaiting  the  return  to  the 
capital  of  General  Washington.  The  President  returned. 

"I  saw  him  go  past  in  a  carriage  drawn  by  four  prancing 
horses,  driven  four-in-hand.  Washington,  according  to  my 
then  ideas,  was  necessarily  Cincinnatus;  Cincinnatus  in  a 
chariot  somewhat  upset  my  republic  of  296  B.  C.  Could 
Washington  the  Dictator  be  anything  save  a  boor,  driving 
his  oxen  with  a  goad,  and  holding  the  tail  of  his  plough? 
But  when  I  went  to  carry  my  letter  of  recommendation  to 
him,  I  found  once  more  the  simplicity  of  the  ancient  Roman. 

"A  small  house,  resembling  the  neighboring  houses,  was 
'the  palace  of  the  President  of  the  United  States ;  no  sen- 
tries, no  footmen  even.  I  knocked,  and  a  young  maid- 
servant opened  the  door.  I  asked  if  the  general  was  at 
home;  she  replied  that  he  was  in.  The  servant  asked  my 
name,  which  is  difficult  to  pronounce  in  English,  and  which 
she  could  not  remember.  She  then  said  softly,  'Walk  in, 
sir,'  and  led  the  way  down  one  of  those  narrow  passages 
which  serve  as  an  entrance  hall  to  English  houses;  she 
showed  me  into  a  parlor  where  she  asked  me  to  wait  until 
the  general  came. 

"I  felt  no  agitation ;  greatness  of  mind  or  fortune  in  no 
way  overawe  me ;  I  admire  the  first  without  being  crushed 
by  it ;  the  second  calls  forth  my  pity  rather  than  my  respect ; 
no  man's  countenance  will  ever  disconcert  me. 

"After  a  few  minutes  the  general  entered  the  room ;  tall 
in  stature,  of  a  calm  and  cold  rather  than  a  noble  bearing. 


97 


98  A   DREAMER  AT  NIAGARA. 

he  resembled  his  engraved  portraits.  I  handed  him  my 
letter  in  silence;  he  opened  it  and  glanced  at  the  signature 
which  he  read  aloud,  exclaiming: 

"  'Colonel  Armand !' 

"This  was  the  name  by  which  he  knew  the  Marquis  de 
La  Rouerie  and  by  which  the  latter  had  signed  himself. 

"We  sat  down.  I  explained  to  him  as  best  I  could  the 
object  of  my  journey.  He  replied  in  monosyllables  in 
English  and  French,  and  listened  to  me  with  a  sort  of  aston- 
ishment. I  remarked  this,  and  said  to  him,  with  some  little 
animation : 

"  'But  it  is  less  difficult  to  discover  the  Northwest  Passage 
than  to  create  a  people,  as  you  have  done.' 

"  'Well,  well,  young  man !'  he  exclaimed,  giving  me  his 
hand. 

"He  invited  me  to  dinner  for  the  next  day,  and  we 
parted." 

This  youth  was  Francois  Auguste,  vicomte  de  Chateau- 
briand, scion  of  an  old  family  in  decadence.  The  French 
Revolution  completed  the  wreck.  Chateaubriand,  who  had 
held  a  commission  in  the  French  army  since  1788,  found 
himself  in  the  spring  of  1791,  ready  for  any  adventure  that 
would  take  him  out  of  France.  Being  of  a  poetic  mind,  he 
decided  to  discover  the  Northwest  Passage.  Nothing  could 
be  more  delightful  than  the  naivete  with  which  he  planned 
to  accomplish  the  impossible:  "I  proposed  to  travel  west- 
ward, so  as  to  strike  the  northwest  coast  of  America  above 
the  Gulf  of  California;  from  there,  following  the  outline 
of  the  continent,  and  always  keeping  the  sea  in  sight,  I 
intended  to  explore  Behring's  Straits,  double  the  northern- 
most cape  of  America,  descend  on  the  east  along  the  shores 
of  the  Arctic  Ocean,  and  return  to  the  United  States  by  way 
of  Hudson's  Bay,  Labrador  and  Canada."  From  this  it 
will  be  seen  that  Chateaubriand  was  not  only  the  Prince  of 
Dreamers,  but  still  very  young.  What  wonder  that  Wash- 


A   DREAMER   AT  NIAGARA.  99 

ington,  remembering  his  own  frontier  campaigns  of  forty 
years  before,  should  have  looked  upon  this  youth  of  21, 
innocent  of  any  knowledge  whatever  of  America,  with 
amazement. 

Our  hero  ate  his  dinner,  as  appointed,  with  the  Presi- 
dent; and  a  few  days  later  journeyed  up  to  Albany,  still 
thinking  of  the  Northwest  Passage.  "What  means  had  I," 
he  afterwards  wrote,  "to  carry  out  this  prodigious  peregri- 
nation? None  at  all.  Most  of  the  French  travellers  have 
been  isolated  men,  left  entirely  to  their  own  resources;  it 
is  but  rarely  that  the  Government  or  any  company  has 
employed  them.  Mackenzie  and  many  others  after  him 
have  to  the  profit  of  the  United  States  and1  Great  Britain, 
made  conquests  upon  the  immensity  of  America,  with 
which  I  had  dreamed  of  aggrandizing  my  native  land.  In 
case  of  success,  I  should  have  had  the  honor  of  bestowing 
French  names  upon  unknown  regions,  of  endowing  my 
country  with  a  colony  upon  the  Pacific  Ocean,  of  taking 
away  the  rich  fur-trade  from  a  rival  Power,  and  of  pre- 
venting that  Power  from  opening  out  a  shorter  road  to  the 
Indies,  by  placing  France  herself  in  possession  of  that 
road." 

He  was  still  dreaming  of  the  Northwest  Passage  when 
the  Hudson-river  packet  finally  set  him  down  at  Albany. 
There  he  hunted  up  a  veteran  fur-trader,  Swift  by  name; 
to  whom,  as  to  Washington,  the  scheme  of  conquest  was 
explained.  Mr.  Swift,  as  gently  as  a  trader  could,  mean- 
while thinking  no  doubt  that  the  youth  was  a  crazy  fool, 
made  what  Chateaubriand  calls  "some  very  reasonable 
objections."  "He  told  me  that  I  could  not  undertake  a  jour- 
ney of  this  importance  at  first  sight  alone,  without  assist- 
ance, without  support,  without  letters  of  recommendation 
to  the  English,  American  and  Spanish  stations  by  which  I 


100  A   DREAMER   AT  NIAGARA. 

should  be  obliged  to  pass ;  that  if  I  had  the  good1  fortune  to 
cross  so  many  solitary  tracts  of  country,  I  should  arrive  at 
frozen  regions  where  I  should  perish  of  hunger.  He 
advised  me  to  begin  by  acclimatizing  myself,  suggested  that 
I  should  learn  the  Sioux,  Iroquois  and  Esquimaux  lan- 
guages, and  live  among  the  coureurs  and  the  agents  of  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company.  Having  gained  this  preliminary 
experience,  I  might  then,  in  four  or  five  years,  with  the 
assistance  of  the  French  Government,  proceed  on  my  haz- 
ardous mission." 

This  advice,  which  we  must  admit  seems  sound,  Cha- 
teaubriand says  annoyed  him.  "Had  I  trusted  to  my  own 
judgment,  I  should  have  set  out  then  and  there  to  go  to  the 
Pole,  as  I  might  go  from  Paris  to  Pointoise."  He  con- 
cealed his  vexation,  hired  a  Dutch  guide  and  two  horses, 
and  still  nursing  a  secret  purpose  to  arrive  at  the  Pole  and 
amaze  the  world,  he  set  out  for  Niagara  Falls. 

In  a  general  survey  of  the  tourist  literature  of  our 
region,  and  of  the  travellers  who  have  made  it,  I  have 
yielded  to  the  temptation  to  linger  a  little  over  this  journey 
of  Chateaubriand.  He  saw  things  none  saw  before,  nor 
have  they  been  recorded  since.  In  the  Onondaga  country 
he  saw  "false  ebony-trees"  and  heard  the  "cuckoo  of  the 
Carolinas" — this  was  perhaps  the  catbird.  It  is  related  of 
him  that  on  one  occasion  he  landed  from  a  boat  on  Lake 
Ontario,  and  ran  into  the  woods  to  enjoy  the  luxury  of  the 
wild  unstinted  freedom  of  Nature  in  all  her  glory  of  forest 
and  flowers;  and  in  the  ecstacy  of  excitement,  he  was 
hugging  the  trees,  he  tells  us,  when  he  heard  a  loud  and 
rumbling  roar,  which  alarmed  and  brought  his  mind  back 
to  earth  from  elysium,  and  caused  him  to  run  to  his  com- 
rades in  the  boat  to  see  what  was  the  matter ;  but  the  alarm, 
he  said,  had  been  causeless ;  "it  was  only  the  tide  coming  in !" 


A   DREAMER   AT  NIAGARA.  101 

In  his  romance  of  "Atala"  Chateaubriand  introduces  an 
episode  at  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  in  which  one  reads :  "Pines, 
wild  walnut  trees,  rocks  of  the  most  fantastic  shapes,  adorn 
the  scene ;  eagles,  borne  away  by  the  current  of  air,  descend 
whirling  round  to  the  bottom  of  the  gulf;  and  carcajous, 
suspended  by  their  long  tails  from  the  extremities  of  the 
declining  branches,  watch  to  seize  on  the  bodies  of  elks  and 
bears  floating  in  the  abyss."  Who  among  us  has  seen  the 
carcajou — elsewhere  we  learn  it  is  the  "spotted  carcajou" — 
hanging  by  his  tail  among  the  other  wonders  of  Niagara? 

The  whole  of  his  narrative  of  the  visit  to  Niagara  is  too 
long  to  introduce  here.  The  following  extracts  will  afford 
some  idea  of  his  adventures,  of  the  poesy  with  which  his 
mind  endowed  even  commonplace  things,  and  of  the 
rhythmic  charm  of  his  diction,  which  survives  a  translation 
into  English: 

"We  rode  towards  Niagara.  When  we  had  come  a  dis- 
tance of  eight  or  nine  leagues  of  our  destination,  we  per- 
ceived, in  an  oak  grove,  the  camp-fire  of  some  savages,  who 
had  settled  down  on  the  bank  of  a  stream  where  we  our- 
selves were  thinking  of  bivouacking.  We  took  advantage 
of  their  preparations :  after  grooming  our  horses  and  dress- 
ing ourselves  for  the  night,  we  accosted  the  band.  With 
legs  crossed  tailor-wise,  we  sat  down  among  the  Indians 
around  the  blazing  pile,  and  began  to  roast  our  maize  cakes. 

"The  family  consisted  of  two  women,  two  infants  at  the 
breast,  and  three  braves.  The  conversation  became  general, 
that  is  to  say,  interspersed  with  a  few  words  on  my  side, 
and  many  gestures ;  after  that,  each  fell  asleep  in  the  place 
where  he  sat.  I  alone  remained  awake,  and  went  to  sit  by 
myself  on  a  root  trailing  by  the  bank  of  the  stream. 

"The  moon  showed  above  the  tops  of  the  trees ;  a  balmy 
breeze,  which  the  Queen  of  the  Night  brought  with  her  from 
the  East,  seemed  to  go  before  her  through  the  forests,  as 
though  it  were  her  cool  breath.  The  solitary  luminary 


102  A   DREAMER   AT  NIAGARA. 

climbed  higher  and  higher  in  the  sky,  now  pursuing  her  even 
way,  again  surmounting  clusters  of  clouds,  which  resembled 
the  summits  of  a  snow-clad  mountain  chain.  All  would 
have  been  silence  and  repose,  but  for  the  fall  of  a  few 
leaves,  the  passing  of  a  sudden  gust  of  wind,  the  hooting 
of  the  wood-owl;  in  the  distance  was  heard  the  dull  roar 
of  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  which,  in  the  calm  of  night,  ex- 
tended from  waste  to  waste  and  expired  in  the  lonely 
forests.  It  was  during  those  nights  that  an  unknown  muse 
appeared  to  me ;  I  gathered  some  of  her  accents ;  I  marked 
them  on  my  tables,  by  the  light  of  the  stars,  as  a  vulgar 
musician  might  write  down  the  notes  dictated  to  him  by 
some  great  master  of  harmony. 

"The  next  day,  the  Indians  armed  themselves,  the  women 
collected  the  baggage.  I  distributed  a  little  gunpowder  and 
vermillion  among  my  hosts.  We  parted,  touching  our  fore- 
heads and  breasts;  the  braves  shouted  the  order  to  march, 
and  walked  in  front ;  the  women  went  behind,  carrying  the 
children,  who,  slung  in  furs  on  their  mothers'  backs,  turned 
their  heads  to  look  at  us.  I  followed  this  progress  with  my 
eyes  until  the  whole  band  had  disappeared  among  the  trees 
of  the  forest. 

"The  savages  of  the  Falls  of  Niagara  in  the  English 
dominion  were  entrusted  with  the  police  service  of  the 
frontier  on  that  side.  This  outlandish  constabulary,  armed 
with  bows  and  arrows,  prevented  our  passage.  I  was 
obliged  to  send  the  Dutchman  to  the  fort  of  Niagara  for  a 
permit  to  enter  the  territory  of  the  British  government. 
This  saddened  my  heart  a  little,  for  I  remembered  that 
formerly  France  had  ruled  in  both  Upper  and  Lower 
Canada.  My  guide  returned  with  the  permit :  I  still  have  it ; 
it  is  signed,  'Captain  Gordan.'  .  .  . 

"I  stayed  two  days  in  the  Indian  village.  .  .  .  The 
Indian  women  busied  themselves  with  different  occupations ; 
their  nurslings  were  slung  in  nets  from  the  branches  of  a 
tall  purple  beech.  The  grass  was  covered  with  dew,  the 
wind  issued  all  perfumed  from  the  woods,  and  the  cotton- 
plants  of  the  country,  throwing  back  their  capsules,  looked 


A   DREAMER   AT  NIAGARA.  103 

like  white  rose-trees.  The  breeze  rocked  the  cradles  in 
mid-air  with  an  almost  imperceptible  movement;  the 
mothers  stood  up  from  time  to  time  to  see  if  their  children 
were  asleep  and  had  not  been  awakened  by  the  birds. 

"From  the  Indian  village  to  the  cataract  was  some  three 
or  four  leagues :  it  took  my  guide  and  me  as  many  hours  to 
reach  it.  Already  at  six  miles  distance,  a  column  of  vapour 
indicated  the  situation  of  the  weir  to  my  eyes.  My  heart 
beat  with  joy  mingled  with  terror,  as  I  entered  the  wood 
that  concealed  from  my  view  one  of  the  grandest  spectacles 
which  nature  has  offered  to  mankind.  .  .  . 

"We  dismounted.  Leading  our  horses  by  the  bridle,  we 
passed  through  heaths  and  thickets  until  we  came  to  the 
bank  of  the  Niagara  river,  seven  or  eight  hundred  paces 
above  the  falls.  As  I  never  ceased  going  forward,  the 
guide  caught  me  by  the  arm;  he  stopped  me  on  the  very 
edge  of  the  water,  which  passed  with  the  swiftness  of  an 
arrow.  It  did  not  seethe,  but  glided  in  one  sole  mass  to  the 
slope  of  the  rock ;  its  silence  before  its  fall  contrasted  with 
the  uproar  of  the  fall  itself.  The  Scriptures  often  compare 
a  people  to  the  mighty  waters ;  here  it  was  a  dying  people 
which,  deprived  of  its  voice  by  the  agony  of  death,  went  to 
hurl  itself  into  the  abyss  of  eternity. 

"The  guide  continued  to  hold  me  back,  for  I  felt,  so  to 
speak,  drawn  on  by  the  stream,  and  I  had  an  involuntary 
longing  to  fling  myself  in.  At  one  time,  I  would  turn  my 
eyes  up  the  river,  to  the  banks;  at  another,  down  to  the 
island  which  divided  the  waters.  Here  the  waters  suddenly 
failed,  as  though  cut  off  in  the  sky. 

"After  a  quarter  of  an  hour  of  vague  and  perplexed 
admiration,  I  went  on  to  the  falls.  The  reader  will  find  in 
the  'Essai  sur  les  revolutions'  and  in  'Atala'  the  two  descrip- 
tions which  I  have  written  of  the  scene.  Today,  high-roads 
run  to  the  cataract;  there  are  inns  on  the  American  side, 
and  mills  and  factories  overhang  the  chasm. 

"I  was  unable  to  utter  the  thoughts  that  stirred  me  at  the 
sight  of  so  sublime  a  disorder.  In  the  desert  of  my  early 
life,  I  was  obliged  to  invent  persons  to  adorn  it;  I  drew 


104  A   DREAMER   AT  NIAGARA. 

from  my  own  substance  beings  whom  I  did  not  find  else- 
where, and  whom  I  carried  within  myself.  In  the  same 
way,  I  have  placed  memories  of  At  da  and  Rene  on  the  edge 
of  the  cataract  of  Niagara,  as  the  expression  of  its  sadness. 
What  meaning  has  a  cascade  which  falls  eternally  in  the 
unfeeling  sight  of  heaven  and  earth,  if  human  nature  be  not 
there,  with  its  destinies  and  its  misfortunes  ?  To  be  steeped 
in  this  solitude  of  water  and  mountains  and  not  to  know 
with  whom  to  speak  of  that  great  spectacle!  To  have  the 
waves,  the  rocks,  the  woods,  the  torrents  to  one's  self  alone ! 
Give  the  soul  a  companion,  and  the  smiling  verdure  of  the 
hill-slopes,  the  cool  breath  of  the  water,  will  all  turn  into 
charm :  the  journey  by  day,  the  sweetest  repose  at  the  end 
of  the  day's  march,  the  gliding  over  the  billows,  the  sleeping 
upon  the  moss,  will  call  forth  from  the  heart  its  deepest  ten- 
derness. I  have  seated  Velleda  upon  the  shores  of  Ar- 
morica,  Cymodocea  beneath  the  porticos  of  Athens,  Blanco, 
in  the  halls  of  the  Alhambra.  Alexander  created  towns 
wherever  he  hastened :  I  have  left  dreams  behind  me  wher- 
ever I  have  dragged  my  life. 

"I  have  seen  the  cascades  of  the  Alps  with  their  chamois 
and  those  of  the  Pyrenees  with  their  lizards;  I  did  not  go 
sufficiently  high  up  the  Nile  to  meet  its  cataracts,  which 
are  reduced  to  rapids;  I  will  not  speak  of  the  azure  zones 
of  Terni  or  of  Tivoli,  graceful  fragments  of  ruins  or  sub- 
jects for  the  poet's  song: 

'  Et  praeceps  Anio  ac  Tiburni  lucus.' 

"Niagara  eclipses  everything.  I  gazed  upon  the  cataract 
the  existence  of  which  was  revealed  to  the  old  world,  not  by 
puny  travelers  like  myself,  but  by  missionaries  who,  seeking 
solitude  for  the  love  of  God,  flung  themselves  upon  their 
knees  at  the  sight  of  some  marvel  of  nature  and  received 
martyrdom  while  completing  their  hymn  of  admiration. 
Our  priests  greeted  the  fine  sights  of  America  and  conse- 
crated them  with  their  blood;  our  soldiers  clapped  their 
hands  at  the  ruins  of  Thebes  and  presented  arms  to  Anda- 
lusia: the  whole  genius  of  France  lies  in  the  double  army 
of  our  camps  and  our  altars. 


A   DREAMER   AT  NIAGARA.  105 

"I  was  holding  my  horse's  bridle  twisted  round  my  arm ; 
a  rattlesnake  came  and  rustled  in  the  bushes.  The  startled 
horse  reared  and  backed  towards  the  falls.  I  was  unable 
to  release  my  arm  from  the  reins;  the  horse,  still  more 
terrified,  was  dragging  me  after  it.  Already  its  fore-feet 
were  off  the  ground ;  cowering  over  the  edge  of  the  abyss, 
it  maintained  its  position  only  by  the  strength  of  its  loins. 
It  was  all  up  with  me,  when  the  animal,  itself  astonished  at 
its  fresh  peril,  gave  a  sudden  turn  and  vaulted  inwards. 
Had  my  soul  left  my  body  amidst  the  Canadian  woods, 
would  it  have  carried  to  the  Supreme  Tribunal  the  sacrifices, 
the  good  works,  the  virtues  of  the  Peres  Jogues  and  Lalle- 
mant,  or  empty  days  and  wretched  idle  fancies? 

"This  was  not  the  only  danger  I  encountered  at  Niagara. 
A  ladder  of  creepers  was  used  by  the  savages  to  climb  down 
to  the  lower  basin ;  it  was  at  that  time  broken.  Wishing  to 
see  the  falls  from  below,  I  ventured,  in  the  face  of  my 
guide's  representations,  down  the  side  of  an  almost  per- 
pendicular rock.  In  spite  of  the  roar  of  the  water  which 
seethed  below  me,  I  kept  my  head  and  climbed  down  to 
within  forty  feet  of  the  bottom.  When  I  had  reached  so 
far,  the  bare  and  vertical  rock  gave  me  nothing  to  lay  hold 
of ;  I  was  left  hanging  by  one  hand  to  the  last  root,  feeling 
my  fingers  open  beneath  the  weight  of  my  body ;  few  men 
have  spent  two  such  minutes,  as  I  counted  them.  My  tired 
hand  let  go;  I  fell.  By  an  unparalleled  stroke  of  good 
fortune,  I  found  myself  upon  the  pointed  back  of  a  rock 
upon  which  I  ought  to  have  been  smashed  into  a  thousand 
pieces,  and  yet  I  felt  no  great  hurt;  I  was  at  half  a  foot 
from  the  abyss  and  had  not  rolled  into  it;  but  when  the 
cold  and  the  damp  began  to  penetrate  me,  I  saw  that  I  had 
not  come  off  so  cheaply ;  my  left  arm  was  broken  above  the 
elbow.  The  guide,  who  was  watching  me  from  above  and 
saw  my  signals  of  distress,  ran  off  to  fetch  some  savages. 
They  hoisted  me  with  ropes  along  an  otter's  path,  and 
carried  me  to  their  village.  I  had  only  a  simple  fracture: 
two  splints,  a  bandage  and  a  sling  were  enough  to  effect  my 
cure.  I  stayed  twelve  days  with  my  surgeons,  the  Niagara 


106  A   DREAMER  AT  NIAGARA. 

Indians.  I  saw  tribes  pass  which  had  come  down  from 
Detroit  or  from  the  districts  lying  south  and  east  of  Lake 
Erie.  I  enquired  into  their  usages.  ...  I  wished  to 
hear  my  hosts'  songs.  A  little  Indian  girl  of  fourteen,  called 
Mila,  and  very  pretty  (the  Indian  women  are  pretty  only 
at  that  age),  sang  something  very  pleasant.  .  .  . 

"The  tribe  of  the  little  girl  with  the  bead  departed ;  my 
guide,  the  Dutchman,  refused  to  accompany  me  beyond  the 
cataract ;  I  paid  him  and  joined  a  party  of  traders  who  were 
leaving  to  go  down  the  Ohio;  before  setting  out,  I  took  a 
glance  at  the  Canadian  lakes." 

It  is  not  my  present  purpose  to  touch  upon  Chateau- 
briand's subsequent  adventures  in  America.  According  to 
his  own  account — repeated  with  some  variation  in  his 
various  works — he  traveled  from  Niagara  to  Pittsburgh, 
thence  went  down  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  to  Natchez, 
with  more  or  less  vague  wanderings  into  Florida.  Return- 
ing north  by  way  of  Knoxville,  he  sailed  the  loth  of 
December,  arriving  again  in  France  January  2,  1792. 

Do  you  ask:  "What  of  it?"  Merely  this:  That  there 
now  has  come  along  one  of  these  mousing,  burrowing,  in- 
sistent literary  gentlemen,  who  has  scheduled  Chateau- 
briand's dates,  mapped  his  alleged  route,  hunted  out  the 
circumstances  of  his  interviews  and  visits  and  adventures, 
and  finally  through  the  respectable  medium  of  the  Revue 
d'Histoire  Utteraire  de  la  France,  declares  with  convincing 
circumstantiality  that  the  distinguished  author  of  "Atala" 
and  "Rene"  and  "Memoires  d'Outre-Tombe"  and  above  all 
of  the  "Voyage  en  Amerique,"  could  not  by  any  possibility 
have  made  the  American  travels  he  claims  to  have  made. 
This  merciless  searcher  after  facts,  M.  Joseph  Bedier, 
shows  that  it  is  extremely  doubtful  if  Chateaubriand  ever 
was  received  by  Washington,  and  that  it  is  quite  certain 
that  he  did  not  make  the  travels  in  the  South  which  he  has 


A   DREAMER  AT  NIAGARA.  107 

so  poetically  described.  M.  Bedier  does  indeed  leave  us  the 
Niagara  episode;  though  he  is  much  troubled  to  make 
Chateaubriand's  description  agree  with  the  facts. 

The  facts  undoubtedly  are,  that  Chateaubriand  came  to 
America,  and  to  Niagara.  He  may  have  visited  Pittsburgh, 
but  he  certainly  did  not  travel  as  widely  as  he  claims  to  have 
done.  He  supplemented  his  own  observations  and  experi- 
ences by  drawing  on  the  writings  of  others.  M.  Bedier 
devotes  many  pages  to  parallel  publication  of  passages  from 
Chateaubriand  and  from  many  authors  and  early  travellers 
in  America  on  whom  he  drew.  He  seldom  appropriated 
their  language,  but  he  stole  their  ideas,  and  set  them  forth 
more  beautifully,  more  poetically,  than  the  first  writers 
could. 

After  all,  it  is  Chateaubriand  the  poet  that  we  are  thank- 
ful for,  for  he  has  endowed  the  literature  descriptive  of 
American  scenery  and  aborigines  with  a  charm  and  grace 
which  no  other  writer  gives. 

In  after  years,  he  loved  to  identify  himself  with  America, 
in  whimsical,  poet's  fashion.  Soon  after  his  return  to 
France,  serving  under  arms  with  his  brother,  the  latter  was 
asked, 

'  'Where  does  your  brother  the  chevalier  come  from  ?' 

"I  was  still  bronzed  by  the  American  sun  and  sea  air," 
he  tells  us.  "I  wore  my  hair  uncurled  and  unpowdered"; 
and  to  the  question  which  had  been  put  to  his  brother,  the 
poet  replied,  "From  Niagara." 

"  'From  the  cataract!' 

"I  was  silent. 

"  'Monsieur  is  going —  ?' 

"  'Where  there  is  fighting.'  " 

The  days  that  followed  were  evil  ones.  Many  of  the 
poet's  relatives  went  to  the  guillotine ;  four  of  them,  includ- 


108  A   DREAMER   AT  NIAGARA. 

ir.g  his  brother,  were  "all  immolated  together,  on  the  same 
day,  at  the  same  hour,  on  the  same  scaffold." 

I  have  referred  to  "Atala,"  which  he  tells  us  was  written 
wholly  in  America,  "in  the  huts  of  the  savages,"  and  for 
which,  by  the  way,  Gustave  Dore  has  drawn  the  most 
impressive  picture  of  Niagara  Falls  in  existence — the 
artist  never  having  seen  them!  How  narrowly  that  ro- 
mance escaped  destruction,  Chateaubriand  records  in  the 
"Memoires" ': 

At  Treves,  "I  sat  down,  with  my  musket,  among  the 
ruins;  I  took  from  my  knapsack  the  manuscript  of  my 
travels  in  America;  I  arranged  the  separate  sheets  on  the 
grass  around  me;  I  read  over  and  corrected  a  description 
of  a  forest,  a  passage  of  'Atala,'  in  the  fragments  of  a 
Roman  amphitheatre,  preparing  in  this  way  to  make  the 
conquest  of  France.  Then  I  put  away  my  treasure,  the 
weight  of  which,  combined  with  that  of  my  shirts,  my  cloak, 
my  tin  can,  my  wicker  bottle,  and  my  little  Homer,  made 
me  throw  up  blood. 

"I  tried  to  stuff  'Atala'  into  my  cartridge-box  with  my 
useless  ammunition;  my  comrades  made  fun  of  me,  and 
pulled  at  the  sheets  which  stuck  out  on  either  side  of  the 
leather  cover.  Providence  came  to  my  rescue;  one  night, 
after  sleeping  in  a  hayloft,  I  found  when  I  awoke,  that  my 
shirts  were  no  longer  in  my  sack;  the  thieves  had  left  the 
papers.  I  praised  God ;  that  accident  assured  my  fame  and 
saved  my  life,  for  the  sixty  pounds  that  pressed  upon  my 
shoulders  would  have  driven  me  into  a  consumption." 

Returning  to  France  in  1792,  he  was  wounded  at  the 
siege  of  Thouinville.  We  next  find  him  in  London,  where 
he  passed  several  years  in  exile,  supporting  himself  wholly 
by  his  literary  labors.  During  this  time  he  wrote  his  famous 
essay  on  Revolutions.  After  the  i8th  Brumaire,  he  was 
allowed  to  live  again  in  Paris,  where,  in  conjunction  with 


A   DREAMER   AT  NIAGARA.  109 

LaHarpe  and  others,  he  established  the  Mercure  de  France 
and  the  Journal  des  Debats. 

He  was  at  this  time  a  Bonapartist,  and  declared  in  one 
of  his  applications  that  the  Emperor  was  one  of  those  men 
whom  God,  when  He  is  weary  of  punishing,  sends  upon  the 
world  in  token  of  expiation.  The  "Genius  of  Christianity," 
beyond  doubt  the  most  celebrated  and  generally  read  of  all 
his  reflective  works,  appeared  in  1802,  in  London,  at  a 
period  admirably  adapted  to  its  success.  Bonaparte  wished 
to  restore  the  Church,  and  a  book  which  twenty  years 
before  would  have  found  few  to  defend  it,  now  attained  an 
immense  popularity.  The  sincere  religious  feeling  which 
pervades  it,  mounting  at  times  into  the  lofty  atmosphere  of 
poetry,  found  its  way  to  the  heart  of  the  public,  then  recov- 
ering from  the  fatal  extreme  to  which  it  had  been  hurried. 
The  next  year,  during  his  residence  in  Rome  as  Secretary 
of  the  Embassy  under  Cardinal  Fesch,  he  wrote  "The 
Martyrs,"  and  in  the  same  year  was  appointed  on  a  mis- 
sion to  the  Valais,  which  station  he  resigned  after  the  death 
of  the  Due  d'Enghien.  In  1806  he  traveled  to  Jerusalem, 
by  way  of  Cyprus  and  Rhodes,  returning  through  Egypt, 
Tunis  and  Spain.  His  "Itineraire"  is  one  of  the  finest 
specimens  of  descriptive  writing  in  the  French  language. 
At  this  date  the  fame  of  Chateaubriand  had  become  Euro- 
pean, and  he  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  first  living 
authors  of  France. 

In  181 1  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  French  Institute, 
in  place  of  Chenier.  After  the  banishment  of  Napoleon,  he 
published  a  pamphlet  entitled  "Bonaparte  and  the  Bour- 
bons," which  Louis  XVIII  was  accustomed  to  say  was 
worth  more  to  him  than  an  army.  This  decided  his  position 
as  a  royalist,  which  political  view  he  held  during  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life.  He  remained  in  Ghent  during  Napo- 


110  A   DREAMER   AT  NIAGARA. 

Icon's  second  brief  reign,  as  Minister  to  Louis  XVIII,  and 
after  the  final  restoration  of  this  monarch  was  made  a  vis- 
count and  a  peer  of  France.  From  this  time  until  1829,  he 
held  various  important  positions  under  the  Government; 
beside  serving  as  Minister  to  Berlin,  Extraordinary  Am- 
bassador to  London,  and  to  the  Congress  of  Verona,  and 
Minister  to  Rome.  The  most  important  of  his  literary 
productions,  in  addition  to  his  editorials  in  the  Journal  des 
Debats,  were  his  "Notes  on  Greece,"  and  a  very  popular 
essay  on  the  abolition  of  the  Censorship,  in  which  he 
affirmed  that  without  freedom  of  the  press  a  representative 
government  was  worth  nothing.  His  complete  works  were 
published  in  1829,  the  publishers  L'Avocat  and  LeFevre 
having  offered  him  the  enormous  sum  of  550,000  francs  for 
the  copyright. 

When  the  July  Revolution  took  place,  he  advocated  the 
claims  of  the  Duke  of  Bordeaux,  and  refused  to  give  the 
oath  of  loyalty  to  Louis  Philippe,  which  obligated  him  to 
resign  his  title  of  Peer.  For  the  last  years  of  his  life  he 
devoted  himself  largely  to  the  compositions  of  his  delightful 
Memoirs.  There  is  a  fine  pen-picture  of  him  in  his  declin- 
ing days,  leonine  in  aspect,  seated  in  a  chair  as  on  a  throne, 
reading  from  his  "Mentoires"  in  the  salon  of  his  dearest 
friend,  Mme.  Recamier. 

Anything  like  a  survey  of  his  literary  work  and  place 
would  lead  us  too  far  afield.  "With  me,"  he  somewhere 
says,  "began  the  so-called  romantic  school,  a  revolution  in 
French  literature."  Nothing  could  be  more  true.  Victor 
Hugo  has  admirably  summed  it  up.  "Chateaubriand,"  he 
says,  "stood  on  the  threshold  of  this  century  and  stamped1  it 
with  his  seal.  The  literary  generations  that  have  followed 
are  all  his  children.  Gustave  Flaubert,  the  De  Goncours, 
Alphonse  Daudet,  studied  and  formed  their  style  on  the 


A  DREAMER   AT  NIAGARA.  Ill 

inimitable  prose  of  his  'Memoires  d'Outre  Tombe'  the 
most  exquisite  work,  perhaps,  in  all  the  French  language. 
The  works  of  Chateaubriand,"  Hugo  adds,  "are  as  dead  as 
the  readers  they  charmed,  but  his  influence  is  a  leading 
factor  in  the  book-making  of  our  day,  and  will  last  as  long 
as  the  French  tongue  is  spoken  or  read." 


THE   NIAGARA   IN   ART 


T  F  one  were  asked  to  say  what  has  been  the  most  pictured 
-*-  subject  in  all  the  world,  he  might  perhaps  pause  for 
reflection. 

If  this  rather  broad  query  were  narrowed  to  the  one 
subject  of  natural  scenery,  still  one  might  hesitate  to  de- 
clare whether  this  mountain  or  that  valley,  or  what  wonder 
of  rushing  stream,  pouring  cataract,  or  mountain  height, 
had  received  most  attention  from  the  artists  of  brush  and 
pencil. 

The  quest  is  no  doubt  an  idle  one,  since  the  only  precise 
answer  must  rest  upon  statistics, — in  regard  to  a  matter  on 
which  no  statistics  exist.  The  question,  however,  now  that 
I  have  for  the  first  time  put  it  fairly  to  myself,  is  not  with- 
out suggestiveness.  As  one  attempts  to  survey  in  thought 
what  mankind  has  done  by  way  of  picture-making,  since  the 
first  rude  scratches  with  stick  or  stone  or  coal,  on  stone,  or 
hide,  or  bark  or  clay,  he  soon  eliminates  all  primitive  picture- 
making,  and  all  practice  of  pictorial  art,  down  to  this  very 
day,  in  all  lands  of  Islam,  of  Buddha,  of  Confucius,  of  all 
the 

".     .     .     lesser  breeds  without  the  law." 

With  all  the  millions  of  Mohamedans,  picture-making  is  a 
forbidden — at  least  a  disapproved — occupation.  No  Mon- 
gol, Malay,  African — no  red,  brown,  black  or  yellow  race 
has  ever  cultivated  art  for  art's  sake  or  any  other  reason. 


114  THE   NIAGARA    IN   ART. 

The  Aryan  is  the  world's  picture-maker ;  and  of  all  the 
Aryans,  the  pictorial  art  has  flourished  widest  and  highest 
in  Christian  lands. 

If  these  statements  appear  reasonable,  may  we  not  go  at 
once  to  the  end  of  this  train  of  thought,  and  declare  that 
the  Christ  figure  and  Christianity's  great  symbol  of  the 
Cross,  have  been  and  are  more  drawn  and  painted  than  any 
other  subjects  which  appeal  to  the  mind  of  man?  True,  in 
world  history,  Christianity  is  not  old.  But  if  the  peoples  of 
earlier  epochs  practiced  picture-making,  knowledge  of  their 
work,  for  the  most  part,  has  not  survived.  All  the  pictur- 
ings  of  the  Egyptians,  the  Assyrians,  and  all  the  civilizations 
of  the  past,  are,  so  far  as  we  know  them,  few  and  negligible, 
as  indeed  is  the  picture-making  of  China,  Corea  and  Japan. 

If  the  reader  concur  in  these  deductions  he  will  perhaps 
reflect  that  through  all  the  centuries  in  which  painting  as  a 
fine  art  was  developing,  the  greatest  painters  found  their 
greatest  inspiration  in  the  Christ.  Great  painters  there  were 
in  Greece  and  Rome  before  the  Christian  era ;  but  how  few 
their  works  and  how  limited  their  distribution  and  influence 
in  comparison  with  the  works  of  the  great  masters  whose 
canvases  of  the  Christ  personality,  albeit  presented  in  a 
myriad  ways,  have  not  been  lost  to  the  world ;  but  in  these 
latter  days  are  perpetually  being  multiplied  by  copyists  and 
engravers,  by  painters  and  photographers,  many  million 
fold. 

I  think  we  may  safely  maintain  some  such  deductive  rea- 
soning. The  same  course  of  thought  brings  me  to  conclude 
that  of  all  human  subjects  the  Buddha  is  the  most  sculp- 
tured. Images  of  Buddha  exist  by  the  thousand  thousand, 
where  you  will  scarcely  find  one  Buddha  picture. 

If  we  eliminate  subjects  of  divine  attributes,  and  seek  to 
determine  what  individual  in  all  the  world  has  been  most 


THE   NIAGARA   IN  ART.  115 

portrayed  in  pictures,  there  is  again  a  wide  range  for  choice, 
with  perhaps  equally  good  arguments  in  several  directions. 
It  has  been  the  perverse  lot  of  many  great  men  to  live  too 
early  to  be  much  portrayed.  Modern  newspapers  afford 
proof  that  the  frequency  with  which  one's  portrait  is  made 
public  is  not  of  itself  a  sufficient  guarantee  of  greatness. 
Julius  Caesar  might  be  rated  greater  than — shall  we  say — 
William  J.  Bryan ;  yet  the  world  rejoices  in  a  thousand 
portraits  of  the  latter  Public  Character,  where  it  has  one 
of  the  former — and  that  one  dubious. 

Considering  then,  the  modern  processes  of  picture-multi- 
plication, we  see  at  what  a  disadvantage  were  the  great  of 
the  earth  before  the  days  of  the  press — the  modern  prolific 
press — and  the  camera.  Thus  it  comes  about  that  your 
Member  of  Congress  or  your  Alderman  may  be  far  more 
abundantly  portrayed  than  Alexander  the  Great.  Of  fa- 
mous moderns,  I  should  hazard  that  Napoleon,  Queen  Vic- 
toria, Washington  and  Lincoln  have  been  among  the  most 
pictured.  Indeed,  when  one  calls  to  mind  the  wide  realm 
of  Great  Britain  and  the  fine  loyalty  that  animates  the  typ- 
ical subject  of  that  crown,  whether  in  India,  Australia  or 
other  ends  of  the  earth ;  especially  when  one  remembers  the 
long  reign  of  their  most  beloved  sovereign,  reaching  well 
down  into  the  days  of  vast  multiplication  of  portraits ;  the 
conclusion  is  inevitable  that  more  portraits  have  been 
painted,  engraved,  photographed  and  printed  of  Victoria 
than  any  other  person  who  ever  lived. 

The  reader  who  wonders  what  all  this  has  to  do  with 
my  subject,  is  reminded  that  one  of  the  greatest  histories 
ever  written,  Diedrich  Knickerbocker's  "New  York,"  begins 
with  the  creation  of  the  world.  The  method  is  useful, 
though  now  fallen  into  neglect.  I  can  not  aspire  to  such 
thoroughness,  and  will  come  at  once  to  the  point  which  all 


116  THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

that  has  gone  before  is  intended  to  establish,  namely:  that 
no  other  place  on  earth  has  been  so  much  pictured  as  Niag- 
ara Falls. 

We  prove  it  by  elimination  of  all  other  places.  No  other 
scenic  point  in  America,  which  can  be  called  a  wonder,  has 
been  so  long  known  to  the  public  or  so  much  resorted  to. 
Europe  abounds  in  scenes  of  beauty  or  grandeur,  often  with 
the  added  attraction  of  human  associations ;  yet  there  never 
has  been  such  abundant  picturing  of  alp  or  valley,  of  Col- 
iseum or  Parthenon,  as  our  Niagara  has  known  for  two  cen- 
turies. 

We  begin,  of  course,  with  Hennepin.  He  was  not  the 
first  white  man  who  saw  the  Niagara  Falls,  but  he  is  the 
first  who  wrote  at  length  of  them,  and  in  connection  with 
whose  writings  a  picture  appeared.  The  so-called  Hennepin 
view,  reproduced  in  modern  prints  without  number,  is  well- 
nigh  as  familiar  as  yesterday's  photograph.  It  is  customary 
to  speak  of  it  with  great  respect,  if  not  admiration;  and  it 
is  accepted,  I  think,  as  pretty  good  evidence  of  a  former 
condition  of  the  cataract,  before  the  deep  recession  ap- 
peared in  the  Horseshoe,  and  while  yet  there  was  a  third 
fall. 

I  have  great  respect  for  historical  evidence,  and  great  ad- 
miration for  Father  Hennepin,  whose  gifts  as  romancer 
have  never  been  half  appreciated.  But  I  confess,  the  more 
I  contemplate  this  first  picture  of  the  falls,  the  more  skep- 
tical I  grow  regarding  it.  The  reader  will  remember  that 
Hennepin  and  the  main  body  of  La  Salle's  expedition  sailed 
into  the  Niagara  river,  December  6,  1678.  A  small  party 
of  LaSalle's  men,  whose  names  we  do  not  know,  had  been 
sent  on  in  advance,  and  although  there  were  other  routes  to 
the  west,  probably  passed  up  the  Niagara.  Father  Henne- 
pin's  activities  in  the  neighborhood  continued  until  August, 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART.  117 

1679,  when  the  Griffon  sailed.  He  passed  eastward,  by  the 
Niagara  route,  in  Easter  week,  1681,  in  which  year  he  re- 
turned to  Europe.  Three  years  later,  in  Paris,  he  published 
his  first  book.  In  that — the  "Louisiane" — the  story  of  the 
expedition  is  told,  and  the  great  cataract  is  described,  but 
there  is  no  picture  of  it,  nor  was  any  published  until  1697, 
eighteen  years  after  he  had  seen  it. 

Now  consider  that  picture,  as  a  sketch.  The  point  of 
view  is  very  high.  The  artist  looked  down  on  the  falls.  He 
was  so  high  that  he  saw  the  Niagara  river  all  the  way  to 
Lake  Erie,  and  he  saw  the  lake,  and  mountains  on  either 
side  of  it.  Any  one  who  could  see  all  this,  was  seeing  in 
imagination  and  in  memory,  and  not  very  good  memory  at 
that.  It  is  plain,  I  think,  that  the  first  picture  of  Niagara 
Falls  was  not  engraved  from  any  sketch  or  drawing  "made 
on  the  spot."  It  couldn't  be,  and  be  so  wrong.  But  it  is 
just  about  what  one  who  was  not  an  artist  might  produce 
from  recollection  of  scenes  he  had  been  through  a  score  of 
years  before;  especially  if  he  were  not  trying  to  make  a 
true  picture — a  work  of  art — but  merely  to  give  a  bird's-eye 
view  of  the  Niagara  "streight,"  as  the  old  chronicles  have  it, 
from  the  Falls  to  Lake  Erie.  Beyond  some  such  purpose,  I 
think  Father  Hennepin  is  to  be  absolved  from  responsibility 
for  the  first  Niagara  picture.  It  was  no  doubt  drawn  for 
the  engraver,  and  engraved  on  the  copper,  by  French  or 
Flemish  artists  who  had  never  been  in  America.  The  de- 
tails are  theirs,  not  Hennepin's.  They  may,  indeed,  have 
constructed  this  and  the  other  illustrations  which  appeared 
at  the  same  time  in  the  "New  Discovery"  wholly  from  the 
data  given  in  Hennepin's  text.  None  of  the  pictures  has 
any  particular  resemblance  to  anything  that  existed;  and 
they  all  show  how  impossible  it  is  to  draw  an  object  cor- 
rectly from  some  other  man's  description. 


118  THE   NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

Much  has  been  made  of  the  third  or  western  fall  shown 
in  this  primitive  sketch ;  but  do  not  those  who  argue  from 
it  the  existence  of  a  separate  fall  at  that  point,  overlook 
Hennepin's  own  statement  that  Niagara  consisted  of  two 
falls?  Probably  the  portion  that  appears  to  descend  cross- 
wise of  the  great  fall,  was  but  the  extreme  right  of  it,  very 
badly  drawn.  The  river  no  doubt  ran  higher  and  stronger 
at  that  point  then  than  now ;  the  rocks  made  an  elbow  of 
it ;  and  the  recession  of  the  V-shaped  cleft,  now  deep  in  the 
Horseshoe,  had  probably  begun.  There  is  no  hint  of  it  in 
the  Hennepin  picture,  but  it  is  shown,  well-nigh  as  con- 
spicuous as  now,  in  a  picture  made  only  seventy  years  after 
Hennepin's  was  published.  We  will  presently  consider  that 
picture. 

The  Hennepin  picture  was  for  many  years  the  world's 
only  pictorial  presentment  of  the  cataract.  It  was  much 
copied,  especially  for  use  in  the  ponderous  folio  compila- 
tions of  voyages  and  travels  which  now  often  form  a  sub- 
stantial foundation  for  accumulations  of  old  books  in  anti- 
quarian shops.  As  was  to  be  expected  each  engraver  de- 
parted a  little  more  from  the  original  and  from  the  truth. 
For  150  years  after  Hennepin  there  continued  to  be  pub- 
lished views  of  Niagara,  inspired  not  by  the  cataract  itself, 
but  by  this  grotesque  old  copperplate  of  1697.  There  was 
thus  evolved  a  certain  typical  view  of  Niagara,  resembling 
Niagara  not  at  all,  showing  two  straight  downfalls  of  water 
into  a  basin  of  surf-like  flouncy  foam;  with  Goat  Island 
reduced  to  a  huge  pillar  of  rock,  and  this  rock,  like  the 
abutting  shores,  elaborately  drawn  in  a  built-up  box-like 
form  of  cleaveage  and  fracture  suggestive  possibly  of  gran- 
itic or  igneous  formation,  but  as  far  as  possible  from  the 
smooth  sedimentary  and  practically  horizontal  strata  of  the 
Niagara  region.  The  surface  of  shores  and  island,  in  this 


THE  NIAGARA   IN   ART.  119 

type  of  view,  is  adorned  with  wonderful  trees — each  a  long 
slightly  curved  stem  set  from  tip  to  base  with  recurrent 
boughs,  the  unique  effect  being  that  of  a  long  dart  or  javelin 
with  many  barbs.  Beyond  are  the  usual  mountains  and 
lake,  and  in  the  foreground  are  stalwart  naked  savages 
pointing  out  the  wonders  of  the  scene  to  a  group  of  amazed 
Frenchmen,  some  in  military  uniform,  others  in  priestly 
robes.  On  the  brink  a  small  dog  vociferously  barks.  I  have 
been  unduly  concerned  about  this  dog,  for  he  appears,  then 
disappears,  in  these  old  engravings  with  singular  uncer- 
tainty. On  the  Canadian  side  a  path  is  shown,  with  natives 
carrying  burdens  on  their  heads  up  and  down  the  steep 
portage. 

This  whole  group  of  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  century 
engravings,  often  identical  in  many  respects  while  varying 
in  small  details,  is  a  curious  illustration  of  dull  imitation. 
The  most  curious  thing  about  it  is  that  this  species  of  Ni- 
agara picture  continued  to  be  published  long  after  truer  and 
in  some  cases  splendid  studies  of  Niagara  had  been  drawn 
and  published. 

There  exist  numerous  very  early  engravings  of  Niagara 
Falls,  which  are  now  matters  of  curiosity  rather  than  works 
of  art.  Among  the  most  curious  are  plates  engraved  with 
two  or  more  subjects,  the  Niagara  cataracts  among  them. 
A  large  vignette  on  some  of  Herman  Moll's  famous  maps 
shows  the  Falls — the  conventionalized  Hennepin  picture — 
with  a  colony  of  busy  beavers  in  the  foreground,  gnawing 
down  trees  and  building  dams.  One  might  almost  infer 
from  the  picture  that  Niagara  Falls  were  a  beavers'  dam. 
Of  this  sort,  too,  is  the  picture  of  Niagara  Falls  that  orna- 
ments the  map  which  accompanies  the  American  travels  of 
Prince  Maximilien  Wied-Neuwied  (1832-34).  In  front  of 
the  cataract,  on  a  low  riverside  plateau,  mounted  Indians 


120  THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

are  pursuing  a  herd  of  bison.  Most  striking,  most  artistic, 
and  perhaps  most  rare  of  these  combination  engravings,  is 
a  copperplate  signed  S.  LeClerc,  an  artist  whose  span  of 
life  was  from  1637  to  1714.  Here  we  have  a  Niagara  which 
if  anything  is  straighter  and  higher  than  Hennepin's.  Out 
of  a  cloud  above  the  left  of  the  fall  emerges  Elijah  in  a 
chariot  of  fire.  At  least,  so  declares  a  title  at  the  lower  mar- 
gin :  "Elie  enleve  dans  un  char  de  feu" — but  the  artist  has 
given  Elijah  not  merely  a  glorious  burst  of  flame  but  a  fine 
pair  of  steeds  which  are  prancing  above  the  yawning  abyss 
of  the  cataract.  The  upper  margin  of  the  picture  bears  the 
legend:  "Chute  de  la  riviere  de  Niagara."  The  picture 
provokes  speculation  as  to  whether  the  artist  sought  to  com- 
bine the  two  greatest  marvels,  one  of  earth,  the  other  of 
translation  from  earth  to  heaven ;  whether  he  sought  to  fix 
the  locality  from  which  Elijah  made  his  ascent ;  or  indeed, 
whether  Le  Clerc  were  responsible  for  the  whole  engraving. 
A  variation  of  touch,  of  stroke  and  tone,  suggests  that  two 
hands  may  have  worked  on  it.  If  the  work  is  wholly 
LeClerc's  its  production  must  have  been  after  1697,  the 
year  in  which  the  Hennepin  picture  appeared,  and  before 
1714,  the  year  of  his  death. 

Of  this  sort,  too,  is  an  aquatint,  published  to  commemo- 
rate the  death  of  Washington.  In  front  of  Niagara  Falls 
stands  the  Goddess  of  Liberty;  at  her  side  a  grotesque 
figure,  apparently  a  negro,  weeps  over  a  memorial  tablet; 
and  above  the  cataract  flies  an  American  flag  of  thirteen 
stripes  and  thirteen  stars. 

Still  another  extraordinary  Niagara  is  an  exquisite  little 
plate  forming  a  frontispiece  of  the  old  French  tragedy  of 
"Hirza."  Here  an  impossible  Niagara — we  could  not  know 
it  was  Niagara  except  that  the  text  says  so — forms  a  back- 
ground for  a  rocky  tomb  and  a  display  of  heroic  aborigines 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART.  121 

— all  utterly  impossible.  No  doubt  one  can  find  other  curi- 
ous old  engravings  in  which  our  falls  are  used  as  a  back- 
ground, a  mere  setting,  a  stage  property,  for  whatever  sub- 
ject the  artist  was  engaged  upon.  In  such  compositions, 
verisimilitude  to  nature  is  not  looked  for,  or  desired.  To 
copy  nature  without  imagination — without  ideality — is  to 
make  no  very  lofty  flight  in  the  realm  of  art.  One  of  the 
most  effective  "Niagaras"  ever  painted  is  the  weird,  sugges- 
tive cataract,  glimpsed  through  a  very  nightmare  of  gloomy 
pines  and  cedars,  which  was  drawn  by  Gustave  Dore  to  illus- 
trate Chateaubriand's  "Atala"  Dore  never  saw  the  Falls, 
nor  did  he  need  to.  His  fancy  could  supply  just  the  sort  of 
Niagara  required  to  harmonize  with  and  express  the  spirit 
of  "Atala." 

Early  in  the  eighteenth  century  certain  map-publishers 
— Popple,  Homanno  of  Nuremberg  and  perhaps  others, 
embellished  their  maps  of  North  America  with  engravings 
of  Niagara  Falls,  but  these,  like  Le  Clerc's  picture,  were 
obviously  based  on  Hennepin's  original.  After  Hennepin, 
I  do  not  find  any  picture  of  the  falls,  that  can  in  any  measure 
be  ascribed  to  one  who  had  seen  them,  until  1751.  In  Feb- 
ruary of  that  year  the  Gentlemen's  Magazine  published  "A 
view  of  the  Fall  of  Niagara,"  designed  to  accompany  Peter 
Kalm's  letter  about  the  Falls,  written  at  Albany,  Sept.  2, 
1750,  and  published  in  the  Gentlemen's  Magazine  of 
January,  1751.  Kalm's  description,  by  the  way,  appears  to 
have  been  the  first  account  of  Niagara  originally  written  in 
English.  Hennepin's  and  La  Hontan's  descriptions  had 
been  translated  into  English  before  Kalm  wrote,  but  al- 
though he  was  a  Swede,  this  Niagara  letter  was  written  in 
English,  to  a  friend  in  Philadelphia — the  beginning  of 
English  literature  on  the  subject !  He  probably  had  nothing 
to  do  with  the  making  of  the  picture  which  appeared  in  the 


122  THE   NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

Gentlemen's  Magazine  a  month  after  his  letter;  but  who- 
ever engraved  it  evidently  referred  to  his  description  for 
data.  Like  the  Hennepin  picture  it  is  a  birdseye  view,  and 
shows  the  river  above  the  falls,  and  Lake  Erie  in  the  dis- 
tance. The  surrounding  mountains  are  still  there,  but  the 
ship,  which  the  Hennepin  picture  shows  on  the  lake,  has 
disappeared.  So  have  the  great  rock  and  the  "third  fall" 
at  the  extreme  right.  Several  islets  appear  in  the  Canadian 
channel,  opposite  Goat  Island ;  great  birds  hover  over  the 
river;  men  are  climbing  up  a  ladder  on  the  face  of  Goat 
Island;  and  two  other  men,  as  the  legend  states,  are 
"passing  over  ye  east  stream  with  staves."  These  changes 
from  the  Hennepin  picture  are  all  suggested  by  Kalm's 
report. 

After  Kalm,  engravings  multiplied,  but  for  many  years 
were  all  more  or  less  of  the  Hennepin  type — always  except- 
ing Pierie.  An  early  German  copperplate,  "Wasserfall  von 
Niagara,"  has  the  whole  scene  reversed,  with  the  third  or 
cross-fall  on  the  left  (now  the  New  York)  side!  Andrew 
Ellicott's  drawing,  engraved  by  Thackara  &  Vallance,  1790, 
although  a  great  advance  toward  truth,  over  the  Kalm  and 
Hennepin  views,  is  still  vastly  inferior  to  the  Pierie  picture 
of  many  years  before. 

The  world  had  no  idea  of  what  the  Niagara  really  looked 
like  until  1774,  when  there  was  published  in  London  a  splen- 
didly executed  copperplate  from  a  drawing  made  in  1768 
by  Lieutenant  William  Pierie  of  the  Royal  British  Artillery. 
This  soldier-artist,  of  whom  I  regret  I  know  nothing  fur- 
ther, was  probably  stationed  at  Fort  Niagara  and  improved 
his  leisure  by  studying  the  cataract. 

Several  of  the  most  interesting  early  engravings  of  the 
falls  are  from  drawings  by  British  soldiers.  To  one  of 
them,  the  work  of  Captain  Thomas  Davies — the  engraving 


THE  NIAGARA   IN   ART.  123 

being  dedicated  to  General  Amherst — is  ascribed  the  date 
1760,  antedating  by  a  few  years  the  work  of  Pierie.  Davies 
was  far  from  being  an  artist ;  and  yet  his  bad,  crude  draw- 
ing, with  a  rainbow  like  half  of  a  cartwheel,  comes  nearer 
to  depicting  the  Niagara  scene  than  all  the  Hennepin-sug- 
gested  pictures  that  have  gone  before. 

We  may  say,  in  a  sense,  that  Niagara  art  began  with 
Hennepin;  but  in  its  higher  sense,  it  began  neither  with 
Hennepin  nor  Davies,  but  with  Pierie.  His  point  of  view 
is  on  the  high  land  back  of  the  present  Queen  Victoria  park. 
The  scene  embraces  both  falls.  The  distant  shores,  flat  and 
true  to  nature,  close  in  the  horizon.  The  Horseshoe  is 
shown  not  as  a  straight  curtain  of  water,  nor  yet,  as  in 
Davies',  by  a  great  semi-circular  sweep,  but  approximately 
as  it  is  today,  with  a  wedge-shaped  cleft  tending  up-stream. 
It  is  almost  a  century  and  a  half  since  this  study  was  made. 
The  wedge  has  extended  a  little  and  is,  perhaps,  sharper. 
The  flood  of  water  is  less,  so  that  now  we  have  bare  rocks 
at  either  side  of  the  greater  fall  where  formerly  the  flood 
swept.  Yet  the  contour  of  the  cataract  is  today  approxi- 
mately what  it  was  in  1768. 

I  am  free  to  confess  that  I  do  not  care  particularly  for 
the  Niagara  Falls  as  we  know  them  today.  The  vicinage  of 
the  cataract  appeals  to  my  imagination  less  and  less  with 
each  succeeding  year  of  protection  and  improvement.  Here 
is  no  note  of  criticism  upon  the  intelligent  work  of  Niagara's 
governmental  guardians.  Far  from  it.  Much  of  the  beauty 
of  the  environment  has  been  preserved,  and  some  of  it, 
now  vanished,  will  perhaps  be  restored  when  power  com- 
panies cease  from  troubling;  but  if  preserved  and  guarded, 
Niagara  is  not  and  never  can  be  the  Niagara  of  the  wilder- 
ness. We  tend  inevitably  in  our  care  of  such  a  place  to  curb 
and  pave,  and  smooth  out,  to  bridge  and  trim  and  to  wall, 


124  THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

to  improve  this  roadway  and  that  bit  of  lawn;  in  short, 
while  protecting  it  so  far  as  may  be  from  vandalism,  these 
works  are  necessary  to  fit  it  for  the  use  and  delight  of  the 
multitude.  Whoever  knows  Europe,  can  recall  scores  of 
places  which  once  must  have  been  the  very  heart  of  wild 
beauty — back,  let  us  say,  in  the  days  of  Caesar, — but  are 
now  and  for  many  years  hemmed  about  with  all  the  devices 
of  protection,  perhaps  gates  of  admission,  with  hotels  at 
nicely-groomed  points  of  view,  with  refreshment  booths 
and  paths  and  permits  in  perfect  propriety. 

Keenly  as  I  feel  the  beauty  and  serenity  of  the  great 
sweep  of  green  waters,  I  find  less  and  less  in  the  prim  and 
parked  environs  that  appeals  to  me.  The  Niagara  I  would 
have  delighted  in  was  that  which  Pierie  saw.  How  one 
would  have  enjoyed  standing  at  his  elbow  upon  that  sightly 
height,  or  sitting  at  his  side  on  rock  or  log,  looking  down 
into  and  over  the  great  cedar  swamp  where  now  are  the 
lawns  and  paths  and  playgrounds  of  the  park ;  while  beyond 
poured  the  green  flood  of  the  great  river,  fed  by  thousands 
of  miles  of  wilderness-rimmed  lakes.  This  of  a  truth  was 
the  Niagara  known  to  the  red  man  and  to  the  missionary,  to 
La  Salle  and  all  the  gallant  train  of  the  remote  adventurous 
days. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  as  Lieutenant  Pierie  worked  over 
his  sketches  he  was  the  butt  of  joke  and  jibe  of  soldier 
comrades  who  could  find  better  sport  in  the  wilderness  than 
the  tame  drawing  of  pictures.  Who  they  were  or  what 
their  worth,  we  do  not  know.  Forgotten  every  one  of  them. 
But  Pierie  we  remember  with  gratitude,  and  prize  the  work 
into  which  he  put  not  only  skill  as  a  draughtsman,  but  to 
which  he  gave  that  admirable  fidelity  which  marks  him  as  a 
lover  of  beauty  and  of  truth. 

When    Lieutenant    Pierie    wrought,    Niagara    belonged 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART.  125 

wholly  to  his  King.  Almost  a  century  later  the  missionary 
Livingston  was  to  discover  in  the  heart  of  Africa  the  only 
cataract  on  earth  which  rivals  Niagara,  and  was  to  christen 
it,  with  fine  loyalty,  after  England's  Queen.  Today  the 
Victoria  Falls,  on  the  Zambesi,  are  drawing  enterprising 
travelers  to  the  British  possession  of  Rhodesia,  as  Niagara 
was  the  attraction  for  far-wandering  Britons  of  a  century 
before. 

In  another  study  I  have  made  note  of  Isaac  Weld,  Jr., 
and  his  Niagara  visit  of  1796.  Weld  was  an  Englishman, 
a  landscape  painter  by  profession,  but  not  a  great  artist. 
Among  the  numerous  copperplate  engravings  from  his  own 
sketches  which  embellish  his  volume  of  travels,  are  three 
of  Niagara.  These  appear  to  much  better  advantage  in  the 
original  quarto  edition  of  1799  than  in  later  octavo  issues. 
They  are  not  beautiful  or  technically  striking,  these  studies 
of  the  falls.  Weld  was  very  matter-of-fact,  or,  as  the 
modern  phrase  is,  was  a  realist,  and  nothing  at  all  of  an 
idealist.  None  of  his  drawings  quite  gives  adequate  height 
to  the  cataract,  nor  have  they  any  quality  of  suggestion  or 
impressiveness.  None  the  less  they  are  a  useful  pictorial 
record  of  Niagara  aspects  at  the  end  of  the  i8th  century. 
In  a  rather  apologetic  note  regarding  his  own  drawings, 
the  artist  says :  "Those  who  are  desirous  of  becoming  more 
intimately  acquainted  with  the  stupendous  cataract,  will 
soon  be  gratified,"  at  least  so  he  has  been  given  to  under- 
stand by  the  artist  in  whose  hands  they  at  present  are, 
"with  a  set  of  views  from  the  masterly  pencil  of  Captain 
Fisher  of  the  Royal  British  Artillery,  which  are  allowed  by 
all  who  have  visited  the  Falls  of  Niagara  to  convey  a  more 
perfect  idea  of  that  wonderful  natural  curiosity  than  any 
paintings  or  engravings  that  are  extant."  I  regret  that  these 
wonderful  pictures  are  not  known  to  me. 


126  THE   NIAGARA   IN   ART. 

Still  another  English  artist  was  John  Maude,  whose  visit 
to  the  Falls  of  Niagara  in  1800  was  not  published  until 
1826.  His  book  is,  I  think,  somewhat  sought  after  by 
collectors  of  Americana,  not  more  for  the  value  of  his  nar- 
rative than  for  the  attractive  copperplate  engravings  from 
his  own  paintings.  There  are  occasionally  offered  by 
dealers,  at  pretty  stiff  prices,  copies  of  Maude  with  colored 
plates,  inserted  manuscripts,  and  other  souvenirs  of  per- 
sonal association,  supposed  to  make  peculiar  appeal  to  the 
collector.  Maude's  narrative  has  a  certain  value,  but  I 
cannot  say  much  for  his  pictures.  His  "General  View  of 
the  Falls  from  the  United  States  side"  absurdly  minimizes 
their  height.  His  beautifully  engraved  "Horseshoe"  shows 
that  cataract  with  a  rim  in  smooth  unbroken  curve,  which 
we  know  has  not  been  its  condition  at  any  rate  since  the 
days  of  Pierie.  It  is  incredible  that  any  sober-minded  man 
could  so  prevaricate  with  brush  or  pencil.  How  could  he 
have  looked  at  it  and  drawn  it  as  he  did ! 

Some  of  the  early  engravings,  of  various  dates,  are 
exceedingly  curious.  I  have  seen  one,  of  unknown  age, 
"drawn  by  Heath,  engraved  by  Metz."  It  is  of  the  Henne- 
pin  type,  with  mountains  in  the  distance,  palm-like  trees, 
and  wagon-tracks  on  the  American  side.  Goat  Island  is 
exceedingly  attenuated — it  looks  to  be  a  fragile  rock  pillar 
several  hundred  feet  high  and  a  few  feet  wide.  In  this 
wonderful  engraving  the  American  fall  is  as  wide  as  the 
Canadian,  and  there  is  no  hint  of  "horseshoe"  or  any  curve 
in  either.  Equally  marvelous — more  so,  indeed,  consider- 
ing its  later  date — is  a  view  of  Niagara  by  W.  M.  Craig, 
engraved  by  T.  Wallis.  The  river  is  seen  above  the  fall, 
like  a  Scotch  loch,  surrounded  with  close,  high,  sullen  hills. 
A  barren  rock  stands  for  Goat  Island,  and  the  face  of  the 
fall  is  mostly  hidden  by  a  vast  cloud  that  drifts  across  the 


THE   NIAGARA   IN   ART.  127 

picture,  starting  from  the  base  of  the  fall  on  the  extreme 
left  and  suggesting  the  smoke  from  a  bon-fire  of  damp 
leaves  on  a  windy  day.  A  few  aborigines  appear  in  the 
foreground,  looking  like  negroes,  with  black  skins  and 
white  loin-cloths.  Still  another  amusing  "Niagara,"  bearing 
the  imprint  "Rawdon,  Clark  &  Co.,"  shows  three  falls  and 
two  Goat  Islands,  with  Indians  in  canoes  cheerfully  being 
carried  over!  A  singular  picture,  with  some  artistic  merit, 
was  "painted  by  Wall,  engraved  by  Archer."  It  is  a  view 
of  the  Falls  from  below,  and  either  the  painter  or  the 
engraver  has  managed  to  make  the  whole  face  of  the  fall 
look  frozen,  although  it  is  not  a  winter  picture.  To  note 
but  one  more  of  these  curios,  there  is  a  birdseye  view  of  the 
Niagara  river  from  Erie  to  Ontario,  "showing  the  situation 
and  extent  of  Navy  Island  and  the  towns  and  villages  on 
the  banks  of  the  river,"  etc.,  drawn  by  W.  R.  Callington,  a 
Boston  engineer,  "from  an  actual  survey  made  in  1837." 
The  picture  was  no  doubt  occasioned  by  the  Mackenzie 
Rebellion,  which  accounts  for  the  prominence  given  to  Navy 
Island.  The  whole  thing  is  bad  and  inaccurate,  not  the 
least  curious  feature  being  two  good-sized  islands  at  the 
outlet  of  Lake  Erie — a  pictorial  reminder,  but  not  a  true 
one,  of  vanished  Bird  Island. 

The  old  books  of  American  travel,  especially  those 
written  by  Englishmen,  contain  many  views  of  Niagara, 
often  pretty  bad,  sometimes  merely  curious,  but  occasionally 
engraved  from  drawings  or  paintings  of  manifest  worth. 
The  large  folding  drawings  of  Niagara  and  other  subjects, 
by  George  Heriot,  Deputy  Postmaster  General  of  British 
North  America,  which  accompany  his  quarto  work  of 
"Travels  through  the  Canadas,"  etc.,  published  in  1807, 
have  chiefly,  perhaps,  an  antiquarian  interest,  though  the 
author  must  be  rated  among  the  artists.  Of  greater  interest 


128  THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

are  the  sketches  made  at  Niagara  by  Alexander  Wilson, 
the  Scotch-American  poet-naturalist,  who  walked  from 
Philadelphia  to  Oswego,  coming  thence  by  boat  to  Niagara 
Falls,  and  back  again,  and  told  the  story  of  it  all  in  verse. 
His  Niagara  drawings  were  engraved  and  published  in  the 
Portfolio  of  1810.  The  Niagara  drawings  signed  "Bonfils," 
which  are  to  be  found  in  Hector  St.  John  de  Crevecoeur's 
"Voyage  dans  la  Haute  Pensylvanie,"  etc.  (Paris,  1801), 
may  have  place  in  our  list ;  as  perhaps  should  A.  Hervieu's 
etching  of  Indians  at  Niagara,  with  the  falls  as  a  back- 
ground, which  accompanies  Tyrone  Power's  "Impressions 
of  America."  The  field  of  book  illustration  is  practically 
boundless,  yet  here  one  sometimes  finds  real  gems  of 
Niagara  art.  The  numerous  Niagara  paintings  of  Mrs. 
John  Graves  Simcoe,  wife  of  the  first  Lieutenant  Governor 
of  Upper  Canada,  have  lately  been  published  in  Canada, 
with  her  diary,  covering  her  residence  on  the  Niagara, 
1792-93.  While  they  have  a  considerable  historical  value, 
their  art  quality  does  not  call  for  consideration. 

The  early  woodcuts  of  Niagara  are  for  the  most  part 
negligible,  except  as  curios;  though  it  may  be  noted  that 
one  of  them  was  by  Peter  Maverick,  who  is  regarded  as 
the  first  American  wood  engraver.  A  woodcut  in  Prior's 
"Universal  Traveler"  (London,  1823),  has  the  Canadian 
fall  on  the  American  side  of  Goat  Island !  A  modern  wood- 
cut that  should  have  mention  was  a  two-page  picture  in 
Harper's  Weekly,  Aug.  9,  1873,  showing  "How  different 
people  see  the  Falls,"  viewing  them  with  the  eye  of  the 
artist,  the  poet,  the  business-man,  etc. 

Of  exceptional  character  are  the  Niagara  drawings  made 
in  1827  by  Captain  Basil  Hall  of  the  British  Navy.  He 
used  a  "camera  lucida,"  which  gave  him  an  image  of  the 
object  to  be  drawn;  all  he  had  to  do  was  to  limn  the 


THE   NIAGARA   IN  ART.  129 

outlines  as  the  sun  and  his  lens  set  the  copy.  While  this 
was  not  great  art  it  was  ingenious — there  being  no  photo- 
graphs then — and  it  was  useful  as  a  record. 

The  first  American  artist  of  distinction  to  visit  the  Falls 
and  to  paint  them  was,  I  believe,  John  Vanderlyn,  whose 
old  home  at  Kingston  on  the  Hudson  still  stands,  an  object 
of  interest  to  visitors,  not  merely  because  of  its  association 
with  the  artist,  but  because  of  its  age.  It  is  one  of  Kings- 
ton's famous  old  stone  houses,  built  by  Dutch  settlers  early 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  its  walls  withstanding  the  burning 
of  the  town  by  the  British  in  1777.  Young  Vanderlyn  came 
to  Niagara  in  1802.  That  he  studied  the  cataract  and  its 
vicinity  seriously  and  to  good  purpose  is  attested  by  his 
numerous  paintings.  Two  of  these,  evidently  the  original 
sketches  in  oil,  are  preserved  in  the  old  Senate  House  in 
Kingston.  Another,  a  canvas  of  some  eight  feet  or  so  in 
length  by  four  and  a  half  in  height,  is  owned  by  one  of  the 
old  Kingston  families.  It  is  a  most  curious  picture  of  the 
Falls,  in  that  it  scarcely  shows  the  cataracts.  The  point  of 
view  is  high  up  on  the  bank  of  the  Canadian  side,  opposite 
the  upper  rapids.  The  American  fall  is  shown  in  the 
distance  but  nothing  is  shown  of  the  face  of  the  Canadian 
fall;  looking  down  the  river  from  this  point,  one  sees  only 
the  line  of  its  crest.  The  rapids,  the  islands,  indeed,  the 
topography  of  much  of  the  surrounding  country,  is  admir- 
ably represented.  In  the  foreground  runs  the  Canadian 
portage  road,  along  which  toils  the  ox-team  of  a  pioneer. 
Several  buildings  are  shown;  Indians  rest  at  the  roadside; 
and  athwart  the  landscape  thrusts  a  great  dead  tree,  on  a 
limb  of  which  sits  an  eagle,  overlooking  the  scene.  It  is  a 
singular  composition ;  although  painted  with  skill  and  intel- 
ligence, its  chief  interest  today  is  historical  rather  than 
artistic. 


130  THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

Vanderlyn  is  known  by  other  views  of  Niagara  which 
he  painted,  and  of  which  he  published  fine  aquatints,  in 
London  in  1804.  One  of  these,  "A  view  of  the  Western 
Branch  of  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  taken  from  Table  Rock," 
etc.,  is  about  30  by  21  inches  in  size.  It  was  engraved  by 
F.  C.  Lewis,  and  inscribed  "to  the  Society  of  Fine  Arts  in 
New  York."  It  shows  the  angle  of  the  Horseshoe,  less 
deeply  worn  than  now.  Of  like  size  is  a  companion  picture, 
"Distant  view  of  the  Falls,  including  both  branches,  with 
the  islands  and  adjacent  shores,  taken  from  the  vicinity  of 
the  Indian  Ladder."  This  picture,  engraved  by  Merigot, 
was  also  published  in  London  in  1804  by  Mr.  Vanderlyn 
himself. 

Of  a  later  period  are  the  paintings  of  F.  Richardt, 
engraved  by  A.  H.  Payne,  and  the  drawings  of  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Cockburn,  engraved  by  J.  Edge,  or  in  aquatint  by 
C.  Hunt.  These  and  numerous  other  now  rare  views  of  the 
Niagara  were  published  by  Ackermann,  of  London,  from 
1830  to  the  middle  of  the  century.  The  enterprising  house 
of  Ackermann  did  much  to  spread  abroad  a  true  knowledge 
of  the  great  cataract.  There  is  one  general  view  of  Niagara 
Falls  from  the  Canada  side,  or,  as  the  engraved  inscription 
has  it,  "from  above  the  English  ferry,"  which  is  sometimes 
to  be  found  delicately  colored,  and  is  indeed  a  work  of  art 
worth  the  several  pounds  sure  to  be  asked  for  it. 

Other  excellent  plates,  "plain  or  colored,'"  were  pub- 
lished in  the  first  half  of  the  iQth  century  by  McLean  of 
the  Haymarket,  London,  from  the  paintings  of  Major 
Henry  Davis  of  the  52d  Light  Infantry.  The  date  of  this 
soldier-artist's  visit  to  Niagara  is  not  clear,  but  apparently 
in  the  30*8  or  4o's.  A  copy  of  his  "Great  Horseshoe  Fall," 
a  most  realistic  picture,  bears  date  1818;  but  this  I  take  to 
be  an  error,  perhaps  for  1848. 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART.  131 

Among  the  early  publications  of  the  distinguished  house 
of  Goupil  is  a  finely  colored  "Rapids  of  Niagara,"  drawn 
from  nature  by  August  Kollner. 

More  than  half  a  century  ago  Washington  Friend,  an 
English  artist  of  merit,  whose  panorama  of  American 
scenery  was  exhibited  throughout  England,  made  a  series 
of  studies  of  Niagara  which  were  among  the  best  of  the 
period.  Some  of  these  have  been  reproduced  in  colors  by 
English  publishers  of  guide  books.  Perhaps  Friend's  most 
famous  works  are  two  large  paintings,  one  a  general  view 
of  the  falls,  the  other  showing  the  Canadian  fall,  which  I 
believe  are  owned  by  the  royal  family  of  Great  Britain. 
Some  years  ago,  when  a  notable  art  collection  was  placed 
on  view  at  Burlington  House,  these  Niagara  pictures  by 
Washington  Friend  were  conspicuously  hung  with  an  an- 
nouncement that  they  were  loaned  for  public  inspection  by 
the  Prince  of  Wales — the  late  Edward  Vllth.  Judging 
from  the  photogravure  reproductions  made  of  them  at  the 
time,  they  are  well-painted  studies  of  Niagara,  depicting 
the  scene  with  useful  fidelity. 

Among  Friend's  Niagara  views  which  have  been  pub- 
lished not  the  least  interesting  at  this  date  are  pictures  of 
the  whirlpool  and  Queenston  Heights,  places  of  great 
former  beauty  but  now  much  changed  by  the  intrusion  of 
modern  "improvements." 

My  reference  to  Edward  Vllth  reminds  me  that  Her 
Royal  Highness,  the  Princess  Louise,  has  painted  the 
Horseshoe  Fall,  evidently  with  no  little  skill.  An  engraving 
of  her  work  accompanies  an  article  on  "Niagara"  by  Joseph 
Hatton  in  the  London  Art  Journal  of  1885. 

Pictures  of  Niagara  Falls  were  vastly  multiplied  by  the 
development  of  chromo-lithography.  The  processes  of 
engraving  upon  stone  were  well  adapted  to  such  a  subject, 


132  THE   NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

either  in  colors  or  in  single  tint.  Prior,  say,  to  1825  or 
thereabouts,  the  published  views  of  our  natural  scenery 
were  almost  entirely  either  copperplate  or  engraved  on 
steel,  but  from  the  date  named  down  to  the  development  of 
photo-engraving  there  has  been  a  great  production  of  litho- 
graphs, among  them  some  of  the  worst  as  well  as  some  of 
the  best  pictures  of  the  Falls  which  we  have.  Notable 
among  the  earlier  lithographs  are  the  Niagara  views  painted 
by  W.  Vivian  and  drawn  on  the  stone  by  T.  M.  Baynes; 
and  the  Paris  lithographs — a  fine  Niagara  series — from  the 
drawings  of  Blouet.  Both  of  the  above  artists  made  many 
Niagara  studies,  their  work  being  published  in  London  and 
Paris  in  the  3o's. 

Of  about  that  period,  perhaps,  are  the  colored  views 
"painted  and  engraved  upon  stone  by  W.  J.  Bennett."  If 
the  collector  finds  old  colored  lithographs  of  Niagara  with 
large  and  vari-colored  goats  in  the  foreground — the  artist's 
ingenious  method  of  indicating  that  his  point  of  view  was 
Goat  Island — he  may  be  pretty  sure  that  it  is  a  "Bennett." 

Lieutenant  De  Roos,  who  traveled  here  in  1826,  illus- 
trated his  book  with  his  own  very  good  drawings,  litho- 
graphed. Another  British  officer,  Lieutenant  E.  T.  Coke, 
made  his  own  sketches  at  Niagara,  which  were  drawn  on 
stone  by  T.  M.  Baynes,  for  "A  Subaltern's  Furlough." 

Of  American  artists  whose  Niagara  studies  were  litho- 
graphed, may  be  mentioned  A.  Vaudricourt,  whose  interest- 
ing lithographic  views  of  the  cataract  (1845-46)  occur  in 
various  forms,  sometimes  small,  but  best  about  30  by  14 
inches.  Vaudricourt  is  said  to  have  utilized  for  his  draw- 
ings the  daguerreotypes  of  F.  Langheim.  Is  there  any 
other  instance  of  the  employment  of  the  daguerreotype  in 
landscape  work  ?  Woodcuts  made  from  Langheim's  daguer- 
reotypes of  Niagara  are  to  be  found  in  Appleton's  Guide 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART.  133 

Book  (of  the  United  States)  published  in  1846;  and  pos- 
sibly elsewhere. 

If  one  may  judge  from  existing  prints  of  the  Niagara 
subject,  the  lithographic  art  gained  high  excellence  in  Paris 
while  yet  the  London  and  American  productions  were  still 
mediocre  or  worse.  I  cannot  speak  of  German  or  Italian 
works  of  this  period — say  prior  to  1840 — with  much  knowl- 
edge or  any  enthusiasm.  Such  early  pictures  of  Niagara 
as  I  have  seen  produced  in  those  countries  are  too  crude 
and  insignificant  to  include  in  our  review.  Possibly  I  am 
overlooking  real  works  of  art — if  so,  may  I  have  the 
pleasure  of  discovery.  But  certain  it  is  the  early  French 
lithographs  of  Niagara  are  by  all  odds  the  most  pleasing; 
and  among  them  I  should  rank  as  of  chief  importance  the 
pictures  of  Jacques- Girard  Milbert.  He  is  of  sufficient 
importance  in  the  art  story  of  Niagara  to  warrant  us  in 
dwelling  briefly  upon  his  career. 

He  was  artist,  author,  and  naturalist.  Born  in  Paris  in 
1766,  he  died  there  in  1840.  He  had  won  gratifying  recog- 
nition, and  held  numerous  posts  of  distinction — had  been 
professor  of  design  in  the  National  School  of  Mines;  had 
accompanied,  as  chief  draughtsman,  a  Government  expedi- 
tion to  the  antipodes;  and  had  sojourned  two  years  in  the 
remote  Isle  of  France,  now  Mauritius,  studying  its  physical 
and  social  conditions, — when  in  1815  he  came  to  America 
in  the  official  train  of  the  French  consul  to-  New  York.  For 
eight  years  he  traveled  through  this  country,  engaged  in 
scientific  research  and  in  sketching,  which  pursuits  brought 
him  to  Niagara  Falls  in  the  summer  of  1818.  Ten  years 
later  there  was  published  in  Paris  the  narrative  of  his 
American  travels,  in  two  handsome  quarto  volumes;  the 
interest  of  which  was  vastly  augmented  by  a  folio  volume 
of  his  drawings.  The  work  is  entitled  "Itineraire  pittoresque 


134  THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

du  fleuve  Hudson  et  des  parties  laterdes  de  I'Amerique  du 
Nord."  I  know  of  no  translation  or  other  edition.  Milbert's 
drawings  were  transferred  to  the  stone  by  many  artists, 
some  of  them  of  reputation.  The  names  of  Adam,  Biche- 
bois,  Deroy,  Dupressoir,  Jacottet,  Joly,  Sabatier,  Tirpenne 
and  Villeneuve,  are  given  as  art-collaborators  for  the  pro- 
duction of  this  work— an  item  of  Niagara  art  and  history 
which  now  for  many  years  has  been  rather  hard  to  come 
across,  though  stray  pictures  from  the  collection  occasion- 
ally are  to  be  found  in  the  hands  of  London  or  Paris  dealers. 
There  is  never  any  difficulty  in  recognizing  a  Milbert.  His 
Niagara  studies  are  not  only  well  drawn,  but  have  a  delicacy 
which  makes  them  pleasing  and  attractive,  apart  from  their 
historical  value — it  will  soon  be  a  century  since  the  artist 
drew  them!  The  Paris  publishers,  Henri  Gaugain  &  Co., 
gave  to  the  work  a  worthy  typographic  setting;  the  folio 
drawings  are  printed  in  tint,  and  the  titles  of  the  subjects 
are  in  French,  German,  English  and  Latin.  A  fine  copy  of 
Milbert  is  for  the  collector  of  Americana — in  the  field  of 
early  art — a  rather  choice  possession,  well  nigh  rivalling  in 
scarcity,  if  not  in  purchase  value,  the  "Voyage,"  etc.,  of 
Prince  Maximilien  von  Wied-Neuwied  of  a  later  date.  The 
Prince's  American  travels  were  in  the  early  30*5 ;  the  Paris 
publication  of  his  work  was  a  decade  later.  As  the  accom- 
panying royal  folio  atlas  of  some  80  plates  includes  studies 
of  our  falls  by  M.  Charles  Bodmer,  the  artist  of  the  expedi- 
tion, we  should  include  him,  if  not  the  enterprising  prince 
himself,  among  the  artists  of  Niagara.  The  Prince  was  at 
Niagara  in  June,  1834,  when,  he  says,  "Mr.  Bodmer  took 
his  general  view  of  this  sublime  scene,  which  is  the  best  I 
have  yet  met  with  in  every  respect  perfectly  faithful  to 
nature." 

The  Niagara  drawings  of  W.  H.  Bartlett  are  worthy  of 


THE   NIAGARA   IN   ART.  135 

notice  for  several  reasons.  They  form  an  important  part 
of  one  of  the  most  notable  art  works  ever  issued  devoted 
in  part  to  the  scenery  of  the  Niagara  region — the  "American 
Scenery,"  handsomely  published  in  London  by  Virtue  in 
1840,  though  many  of  the  engravings  bear  an  earlier  date. 

Bartlett  was  a  young  English  artist,  who,  in  his  later 
years,  won  great  popularity  for  his  illustrations  of  Egypt, 
Jerusalem,  and  other  regions  of  picturesque  and  storied 
interest.  His  Niagara  studies  were  made  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  decade  of  the  3o's,  a  period,  by  the  way,  peculiarly 
rich  both  in  the  art  and  literature  of  the  Niagara  region,  due 
in  part,  no  doubt,  to  the  fact  that  the  opening  of  the  Erie 
Canal  and  the  building  of  railroads  for  the  first  time  had 
made  travel  to  the  banks  of  the  Niagara  comparatively  easy. 

The  London  publishers  who  directed  Bartlett's  work 
engaged  for  the  literary  part  of  the  venture  N.  P.  Willis, 
whose  place  in  American  letters  was  perhaps  rated  higher 
then  than  it  would  be  now.  Willis'  work  is  by  turns  clever 
and  commonplace.  But  the  chief  value  of  the  volumes  lies 
in  the  120  engravings,  all  from  Bartlett's  drawings.  His 
studies  were  engraved  by  many  different  hands,  so  that  the 
artist's  work  received  a  somewhat  varying  presentation  in 
the  metal.  Yet,  as  one  turns  the  pages  of  this  still  beautiful 
and  attractive  work,  it  is  impossible  to  say  that  any  one  of 
the  engravers  failed  to  do  justice  to  the  original  picture. 
The  work  includes  eight  engravings  of  scenes  on  the 
Niagara,  with  perhaps  as  many  more  studies  of  the  Lakes, 
the  Erie  canal,  etc.,  of  local  interest. 

Several  of  Bartlett's  drawings,  aside  from  their  art 
quality,  have  a  definite  value  as  historical  records ;  thus  the 
outlet  of  Niagara  river  with  Lake  Ontario  in  the  distance  is 
one  of  the  very  few  pictures  that  show  the  lower  gorge  and 
the  original  monument  to  General  Brock.  But  one  other 


136  THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

contemporary  drawing  known  to  me  shows  it  better,  and 
that  is  Bartlett's  own  study  of  Queenston  Heights  and  the 
first  Brock  monument,  made  from  the  old  Lewiston  landing. 
That  picture  in  some  of  its  detail  is  worth  whole  chapters 
of  reminiscences  and  record  by  way  of  recalling  the  condi- 
tions of  that  time.  The  drawing  of  the  lower  gorge  has  a 
peculiar  charm  in  that  it  preserves  for  us  the  wildness  of 
that  beautiful  reach  of  river  before  it  was  encroached  upon 
by  the  works  of  man.  It  is  true  that  the  artist,  or  the 
engraver,  or  the  two  in  wicked  collusion,  have  given  us  a 
lovely  sunset  fair  and  square  in  the  north;  but  one  cannot 
be  too  critical;  perhaps  the  sun  did  set  north  of  Toronto 
in  the  late  3o's;  and  at  any  rate,  artists  have  a  perpetual 
license  to  take  liberties  with  the  celestial  bodies. 

Genuinely  edifying  to  the  inquirer  as  to  early  conditions 
at  Niagara,  is  Bartlett's  view  of  the  landing  on  the  American 
side.  It  shows  the  rowboat,  small  but  staunch,  which  served 
as  ferry  for  many  years ;  and  it  shows  the  log  runways,  the 
windlass,  and  the  rough  zigzag  steps  up  the  cliffs,  which 
long  ago  disappeared.  For  these  and  like  data  Bartlett's 
picture  is  the  best  source  of  information  I  know  of,  even  if 
he  does  give  us  a  glimpse  of  the  falls  coming  like  an  ocean 
from  the  sky. 

And  this  brings  me  to  Bartlett's  chief  fault  as  an  histori- 
cal artist.  He  is  a  little  prone  to  impose  upon  us  by  a  subtle 
magnifying  of  his  subject.  It  is  very  easy  to  draw  the 
Niagara,  as  for  instance  his  marvelous  "View  from  Table 
Rock,"  and  then  by  introducing  human  figures  drawn  say 
to  one-half  or  one-quarter  scale,  vastly  to  magnify  the 
height  and  grandeur  of  the  scene.  But  if  his  studies  are 
open  to  this  suspicion,  or  to  a  general  charge  of  over-pretti- 
ness — which  fault,  if  it  be  a  fault,  perhaps  lies  with  the 
steel  plate  itself — they  must  also  be  credited  with  genuine 


THE   NIAGARA   IN   ART.  137 

merit  as  works  of  art  and  in  many  instances  with  definite 
value  as  historical  records. 

It  was  these  beautiful  volumes  on  "American  Scenery," 
the  first  creditable  work  of  the  sort  that  had  been  under- 
taken, that  first  fairly  made  known  to  the  world  the  chief 
scenic  features  of  the  eastern  and  northern  United  States. 
What  has  since  developed  as  the  greatest  scenic  portion  of 
our  country  was  then  practically  unknown.  In  the  seventy 
and  more  years  that  have  elapsed  since  these  drawings  were 
published,  there  have  been  many  works  on  similar  lines,  of 
varying  merit,  some  of  them  enlisting  the  talent  of  genuine 
artists;  but  I  know  of  none  which  is  a  better  Niagara 
record  or  a  more  pleasing  one  than  these  old-time  drawings 
of  W.  H.  Bartlett. 

More  than  one  artist  appears  to  have  re-engraved 
Bartlett's  pictures.  A  New  York  publisher,  Hermann  J. 
Meyer,  in  1854  issued  a  Niagara  series  with  German  text; 
most  of  the  pictures  were  suspiciously  like  Bartlett,  though 
far  inferior  to  the  originals.  The  collector  will  sometimes 
run  across  a  beautiful  plate,  "Under  the  Horseshoe,"  drawn 
by  J.  C.  Buttre  and  published  in  New  York.  It  suggests 
Bartlett's  study  of  the  same  subject,  yet  in  the  treatment  of 
the  water  is  wholly  different — and  better  than  Bartlett. 

In  the  roll  of  Niagara  art  the  name  of  Thomas  Cole  has 
long  been  eminent,  if  not  preeminent.  Though  born  in 
England,  Cole  spent  most  of  his  life  in  America  and  is  a 
sort  of  landmark  in  the  earlier  development  of  American 
painting.  He  first  visited  Niagara  in  1829.  Of  that  visit 
his  biographer,  Louis  L.  Noble,  records  a  not  unusual 
experience:  "He  was  disappointed.  Lifted  by  no  rapture, 
burdened  by  no  sense  of  overpowering  grandeur,  he  gazed 
upon  it  almost  without  an  emotion  above  that  of  surprise 
at  himself.  ...  Its  failure  to  affect  him  at  once  lay  in 


138  THE   NIAGARA   IN   ART. 

its  very  greatness.  .  .  .  Niagara  to  Cole  was,  by  his 
own  declaration,  far  less  than  the  mountains.  They  were 
symbols  of  the  eternal  majesty,  immutability  and  repose, 
which  no  cataract  could  ever  be.  .  .  .  Niagara  was 
great  in  its  loneliness."  How  much  of  this  expresses  Cole's 
mind,  and  how  much  the  mind  of  the  Reverend  Mr.  Noble, 
one  cannot  say.  Many  a  man  has  been  lost  to  posterity 
through  the  philosophizing  of  his  biographer. 

It  is  recorded  that  Cole  made  many  drawings  of  Niagara 
at  this  time — the  spring  of  1829.  He  sketched  it  "at  various 
points,  particularly  from  below,  and  upon  Table  Rock,  and 
from  a  projection  on  the  eastern  brink,  where  the  eye  com- 
mands, at  a  glance,  the  entire  sweep  of  the  cataract  with 
the  rugged  cliffs  of  Goat  Island.  For  the  study  of  water, 
especially  under  all  its  circumstances  connected  with  tor- 
rent-motion, Niagara  far  exceeded,  in  his  opinion,  all  other 
places.  A  favorite  study  was  a  singularly  fine  swell,  beauti- 
fully breaking  back  upon  itself,  in  the  rapid  below  the 
bridge  crossing  to  the  island.  Well  nigh  twenty  years  after- 
ward, he  pointed  it  out  to  a  friend,  the  same  'thing  of 
beauty'  which  he  had  studied  with  more  pleasure  and  effect 
than  almost  any  other  single  object  at  the  falls.  Footing  it 
down  the  river  with  sketch-book  in  hand,  the  Whirlpool 
afforded  fine  opportunities  for  water-studies,  and  the 
heights  of  Queenston  opened  to  his  view  an  expanse  of 
forest-tops,  then  unbroken  but  by  the  mighty  river,  and 
bounded  by  the  distant  Ontario,  which  he  did  not  fail  to 
secure  for  future  purposes." 

When  or  where  he  painted  his  great  picture  of  the  Falls 
is  not  clear.  Writing  from  London,  May  i,  1831,  he  says: 
"I  hope  to  arrive  in  America  November  next.  With  me  I 
shall  bring  several  pictures,  and  most  likely  the  Falls  of 
Niagara."  I  find  no  record  of  his  painting  Niagara  at  a 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART.  139 

later  period.  Cole  was  but  28  years  old  when  he  first 
studied  the  cataract.  Sixteen  years  later,  when  he  had  won 
high  rank  in  the  art  world,  he  again  visited  Niagara  Falls, 
with  his  wife.  The  following  page  from  his  journal  is 
appropriate  here,  as  it  shows  the  attitude  of  an  artist  mind 
towards  the  Niagara  subject: 

"September  4,  1847. — On  Tuesday  last,  Maria  and  I 
returned  from  an  excursion  to  Niagara.  Niagara  I  have 
visited  before.  Its  effect  on  my  mind  was  perhaps  as  great 
as  when  I  first  saw  it.  But  I  am  convinced  that,  sublime 
and  beautiful  as  it  is,  it  would  soon  cease  to  excite  much 
emotion.  The  truth  is,  that  the  mind  dwells  not  long  with 
delight  on  objects  whose  main  quality  is  motion,  unless  that 
motion  is  varied.  Niagara,  stupendous  and  unceasing  as  it 
is,  is  nevertheless  comparatively  limited, — limited  in  its 
resources  and  duration.  The  mind  quickly  runs  to  the 
fountain  head  of  all  its  waters ;  the  eye  marks  the  process 
of  its  sinking  to  decay.  The  highest  sublime  the  mind  of 
man  comprehendeth  not.  He  stands  upon  one  shore,  but 
sees  not  the  other.  Not  in  action,  but  in  deep  repose,  is 
the  loftiest  element  of  the  sublime. 

"With  action  waste  and  ultimate  exhaustion  are  asso- 
ciated. In  the  pure  blue  sky  is  the  highest  sublime.  There 
is  the  illimitable.  When  the  soul  essays  to  wing  its  flight 
into  that  awful  profound,  it  returns  tremblingly  to  its 
earthly  rest.  All  is  deep,  unbroken  repose  up  there — voice- 
less, motionless,  without  the  colors,  lights  and  shadows,  and 
ever-changing  draperies  of  the  lower  earth.  There  we  look 
into  the  uncurtained,  solemn  serene — into  the  eternal,  the 
infinite — toward  the  throne  of  the  Almighty. 

"The  beauty  of  Niagara  is  truly  wonderful,  and  of  great 
variety.  Morning  and  evening,  noon  and  midnight,  in  storm 
and  calm,  summer  and  winter,  it  has  a  splendour  all  its 
own.  In  its  green  glancing  depths  there  is  beauty ;  and  also 
in  its  white  misty  showers.  In  its  snow-like  drifts  of  foam 
below,  beauty  writhes  in  torment.  Iris,  at  the  presence  of 
the  sun,  at  the  meek  presence  of  the  moon,  wreathes  its  feet 


140  THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

with  brighter  glories  than  she  hangs  around  the  temples  of 
the  cloud.  Yet  all  is  limited.  It  cannot  bear  comparison 
with  that  which  haunts  the  upper  abysses  of  the  air.  There 
is  infinity  in  the  cloud-scenery  of  a  sunset.  Men  see  it, 
though,  so  commonly,  that  it  ceases  to  make  an  impression 
upon  them.  Niagara  they  see  but  once  or  so,  and  then  only 
for  a  little  while;  hence  the  power  it  exerts  over  their 
minds.  Were  there  Niagaras  around  us  daily,  they  would 
not  only  cease  in  most  cases  to  be  objects  of  pleasure,  but 
would,  very  likely,  become  sources  of  annoyance. 

"But  great,  glorious,  and  sublime  Niagara — wonder  to 
the  eye  of  man — I  do  not  wish  to  disparage  thee.  Thou 
hast  a  power  to  stir  the  deep  soul.  Thy  mighty  and 
majestic  cadence  echoes  in  my  heart,  and  moves  my  spirit 
to  many  thoughts  and  feelings.  Thy  bright  misty  towers, 
meeting  the  vault  on  high,  and  based  upon  the  shooting 
spray  beneath,  are  images  of  purity.  Thy  voice — deep  call- 
ing unto  deep,  with  a  might  that  makes  the  hoary  cliffs  to 
tremble, — leads  back  the  soul  to  Him,  speaking  upon  Sinai's 
smoking  summit.  Thy  steep-down  craggy  precipices  are 
the  triumphal  gate  through  which,  in  grand  procession,  pass 
the  royal  lakes  and  captive  rivers.  The  soul  is  full  of  thee. 
Favoured  is  the  man  who  treads  thy  brink.  Thankful 
should  he  be  to  God  for  the  display  of  one  of  His  most 
wonderful  works.  But  they  are  blessed  who  see  thee  not, 
if  they  will  accept  the  gift  which  God  vouchsafes  to  all 
men,  which,  in  beauty  and  sublimity,  does  far  surpass 
Niagara — the  sky.  O  that  men  would  turn  from  their 
sordid  pursuits,  and  lift  their  eyes  with  reverential  wonder 
there." 

Cole's  picture,  in  its  day  acclaimed  a  masterpiece,  has 
now  a  two-fold  interest  in  the  historic  sense ;  it  is  a  beauti- 
ful record  of  a  pristine  forest  Niagara  that  has  long  ago 
vanished;  and  it  is  in  itself  an  example  of  a  method  and 
manner  of  painting — one  might  almost  say,  of  seeing  Nature 
— no  longer  favored,  perhaps  not  attainable  by  modern 
artists.  I  should  add,  that  I  only  know  Cole's  "Niagara" 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART.  141 

through  engravings.  I  have  made  considerable  inquiry, 
especially  of  the  directors  of  the  principal  art  collections  in 
America,  but  none  of  them  has  been  able  to  inform  me  in 
whose  hands  the  original  painting  now  is.  In  1831  it  was 
owned  by  Joshua  Bates.  Engravings  of  Cole's  "Niagara" 
were  published  by  Walker,  in  Boston,  in  1832.  It  was  also 
engraved  by  T.  S.  Woodcock  and  published  in  Baltimore  by 
Robert  Reid. 

Lord  Morpeth,  afterwards  the  Earl  of  Carlisle,  visited 
Niagara  Falls  and  wrote  poetry  about  them.  He  also  made 
many  friends  in  America,  one  of  the  best  being  W.  H. 
Prescott,  the  historian.  Carlisle  appears  to  have  asked  him 
to  procure  a  painting  of  the  cataract,  with  what  result  is 
shown  by  the  following  extract  from  one  of  Mr.  Prescott's 
letters : 

BOSTON,  U.  S.,  January  27,  1851. 

MY  DEAR  CARLISLE  :  I  wrote  you  from  the  country  that, 
when  I  returned  to  town,  I  should  lose  no  time  in  endeavor- 
ing to  look  up  a  good  painting  of  the  Falls  of  Niagara.  I 
have  not  neglected  this ;  but  though  I  found  it  easy  enough 
to  get  paintings  of  the  grand  cataract,  I  have  not  till  lately 
been  able  to  meet  with  what  I  wanted.  I  will  tell  you  how 
this  came  about.  When  Bulwer,  your  Minister,  was  here, 
I  asked  him,  as  he  has  a  good  taste  in  the  arts,  to  see  if 
he  could  meet  with  any  good  picture  of  Niagara  while  he 
was  in  New  York.  Some  time  after,  he  wrote  me  that  he 
had  met  with  "a  very  beautiful  picture  of  the  Falls,  by  a 
Frenchman."  It  so  happened,  that  I  had  seen  this  same 
picture  much  commended  in  the  New  York  papers,  and  I 
found  that  the  artist's  name  was  Lebron,  a  person  of  whom 
I  happened  to  know  something,  as  a  letter  from  the  Viscount 
Santarem,  in  Paris,  commended  him  to  me  as  a  "very 
distinguished  artist,"  but  the  note  arriving  last  summer, 
while  I  was  absent,  I  had  never  seen  Mr.  Lebron.  I 
requested  my  friend,  Mr. ,  of  New  York,  on  whose 


142  THE   NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

judgment  I  place  more  reliance  than  on  that  of  any  other 
connoisseur  whom  I  know,  and  who  has  himself  a  very 
pretty  collection  of  pictures,  to  write  me  his  opinion  of  the 
work.  He  fully  confirmed  Bulwer's  report;  and  I  accord- 
ingly bought  the  picture,  which  is  now  in  my  own  house. 

It  is  about  five  feet  by  three  and  a  half,  and  exhibits, 
which  is  the  most  difficult  thing,  an  entire  view  of  the  Falls, 
both  on  the  Canada  and  American  side.  The  great  difficulty 
to  overcome  is  the  milky  shallowness  of  the  waters,  where 
the  foam  diminishes  so  much  the  apparent  height  of  the 
cataract.  I  think  you  will  agree  that  the  artist  has  managed 
this  very  well.  In  the  distance  a  black  thunderstorm  is 
bursting  over  Goat  Island  and  the  American  Falls.  A 
steamboat,  the  "Maid  of  the  Mist,"  which  has  been  plying 
for  some  years  on  the  river  below,  forms  an  object  by  which 
the  eye  can  measure,  in  some  degree,  the  stupendous  pro- 
portions of  the  cataract.  On  the  edge  of  the  Horseshoe 
Fall  is  the  fragment  of  a  ferry-boat  which,  more  than  a 
year  since,  was  washed  down  to  the  brink  of  the  precipice, 
and  has  been  there  detained  until  within  a  week,  when,  I 
see  by  the  papers,  it  has  been  carried  over  into  the  abyss. 
I  mention  these  little  incidents  that  you  may  understand 
them,  being  somewhat  different  from  what  you  saw  when 
you  were  at  Niagara ;  and  perhaps  you  may  recognize  some 
change  in  the  form  of  the  Table  Rock  itself,  some  tons  of 
which,  carrying  away  a  carriage  and  horses  standing  on  it 
at  the  time,  slipped  into  the  gulf  a  year  or  more  since. 

I  shall  send  the  painting  out  by  the  "Canada,"  February 
1 2th,  being  the  first  steamer  which  leaves  this  port  for 
Liverpool,  and  as  I  have  been  rather  unlucky  in  some  of 
my  consignments,  I  think  it  will  be  as  safe  to  address  the 
box  at  once  to  you,  and  it  will  await  your  order  at  Liverpool, 
where  it  will  probably  arrive  the  latter  part  of  February. 

I  shall  be  much  disappointed  if  it  does  not  please  you 
well  enough  to  hang  upon  your  walls  as  a  faithful  represen- 
tation of  the  great  cataract;  and  I  trust  you  will  gratify 
me  by  accepting  it  as  a  souvenir  of  your  friend  across  the 
water.  I  assure  you  it  pleases  me  much  to  think  there  is 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART.  143 

anything  I  can  send  you  from  this  quarter  of  the  world 
which  will  give  you  pleasure.     .     .     . 
And  believe  me,  dearest  Carlisle, 

Ever  faithfully  yours, 

W.  H.  PRESCOTT. 

It  may  be  well  to  remind  the  reader  that  the  historian 
Prescott  was  nearly  blind;  and,  incidentally,  to  correct  his 
statement  about  the  horses  and  carriage.  The  great  fall  of 
Table  Rock  occurred  at  noonday,  June  25,  1850.  The 
driver  of  an  omnibus,  who  had  taken  off  his  horses  for 
their  midday  feed,  and  was  washing  his  vehicle,  felt  the 
preliminary  cracking,  and  escaped,  with  the  horses;  the 
empty  omnibus  being  carried  into  the  gulf  below.  Of 
Lebron,  or  his  work,  I  find  no  record. 

It  is  now  more  than  half  a  century  since  Frederic  Edward 
Church  painted  Niagara  Falls.  When  his  picture  was  first 
exhibited,  in  New  York  in  1857,  it  was  declared  to  be  the 
greatest  Niagara  painting  ever  made.  That  appeared  to 
express  the  consensus  of  the  most  capable  critical  opinion 
of  the  day.  In  the  half  century  and  more  that  has  passed 
since,  countless  canvases  have  undertaken  to  express  the 
spirit  of  the  Niagara  scene;  but  as  I  studied  Church's 
picture,  recently,  in  the  Corcoran  Gallery  at  Washington, 
I  could  but  echo  the  verdict  of  1857.  I  know  of  nothing 
that  surpasses  it,  nothing  that  ranks  with  it.  Frederic  E. 
Church  is  still  first  in  the  ranks  of  Niagara  artists. 

It  is  not  a  vast  canvas — seven  or  eight  feet  or  so,  by 
three  and  a  half.  One  rather  forgets  just  what  it  shows ; 
but  long  after  he  may  find  his  mind  dwelling  in  quiet  delight 
on  the  vision  of  a  sublime  onward  movement  of  emerald 
water,  which  falls  majestically  into  an  impenetrable  abyss. 
Something  of  the  greatness  of  this  picture  lies  in  its  sim- 
plicity, in  its  freedom  from  distracting  and  belittling  acces- 


144  THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

series.  One  draws  from  it  something  of  the  thrill  and 
uplift  of  spirit  that  comes  to  the  rightly-attuned  soul  in 
contemplation  of  any  great  expression  of  nature — a  sweep 
of  ocean  billows,  or  a  night  full  of  stars. 

The  genius  of  Church,  as  expressed  in  this  picture,  had 
due  recognition  in  his  time.  Ten  years  after  the  "Niagara" 
was  painted,  it  won  a  prize  at  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1867. 
It  was  widely  exhibited  in  Europe ;  and  returning  to 
America  found  a  fit  and  fortunate  abiding  place  in  the 
Corcoran  Gallery.  The  capital  of  the  nation  is  an  appro- 
priate place  for  the  greatest  painting  of  Niagara  Falls. 

It  is  related  of  Church  that  during  the  summer  he  spent 
at  Niagara,  he  painted  very  little.  "He  passed  many  days 
there,  not  busily  sketching  all  the  time,  but  wandering  about 
with  his  eyes  and  his  heart  brooding  on  the  cataract,  sitting 
sometimes  for  hours,  studying  the  shifting  splendors  of  the 
spectacle;  and  having  made  his  sketches,  came  home,  and 
in  two  months  of  devotion  produced  this  picture."  His 
method  is  commended  to  artists  who  are  under  the  cloud  of 
realism.  Church's  picture,  ignoring  everything  but  the 
heart  and  soul  and  essence  of  the  scene,  is  the  most  real — 
and  the  most  poetic — picture  of  Niagara  ever  painted. 

Fortunately,  as  is  not  always  the  case  with  a  great 
picture,  there  exist  excellent  chromo-engravings  of  Church's 
"Niagara."  They  are  hard  to  find,  nowadays,  and  have  to 
be  well  paid  for;  but  the  original  engraving,  made  soon 
after  the  picture  was  painted,  is,  if  in  good  condition,  a  prize 
worth  paying  well  for.  There  is  also,  in  the  National 
Gallery  of  Scotland,  at  Edinburgh,  another  "Niagara"  by 
Church. 

The  half  century  and  more  that  has  elapsed  since  Church 
achieved  his  masterpiece,  has  not,  so  far  as  I  am  aware, 
produced  anything  on  the  Niagara  theme  that  eclipses  it  in 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART.  145 

j 
merit.     Niagara  has  been — and  still  is — much  painted,  but 

the  studies  of  it  that  could  command  wide  attention  as 
works  of  art,  are  surprisingly  few.  Many  of  America's 
best  art  galleries — most  of  them,  in  fact — contain  no  Ni- 
agara. 

It  is  pleasant  to  be  able  to  record  that  on  at  least  one  oc- 
casion the  Commonwealth  of  New  York  has  taken  official 
cognizance  of  Niagara  as  an  art  subject.  Prior  to  the  Co- 
lumbian Exposition,  the  State  commissioned  P.  C.  Flynne, 
then  resident  at  Niagara  Falls,  to  paint  a  picture  of  the 
cataract  for  exhibition  in  the  New  York  Building  at  Chi- 
cago. The  completed  work  is  probably  one  of  the  largest 
of  the  Niagara  paintings  now  exhibited,  the  canvas  being 
eight  by  fifteen  feet.  It  embraces  both  the  American  and 
Canadian  falls;  and  if  it  reveals  no  particular  inspiration, 
it  is  at  any  rate  skilfully  and  intelligently  painted.  In  1894 
the  artist  presented  it  to  the  State  of  New  York,  and  since 
that  time  it  has  held  a  conspicuous  place  in  the  Senate  lobby 
of  the  Capitol.  It  may  be  noted  that  the  unfinished  mural 
work  of  William  M.  Hunt,  in  the  Capitol  at  Albany,  was  to 
have  included  some  treatment  of  the  Niagara  theme. 

Louis  R.  Mignot,  a  New  York  artist,  exhibited  at  the 
Columbian  Exposition  a  study  of  Niagara  which  long  since 
probably  found  its  way  to  some  private  collection.  Al- 
though the  "Niagaras"  in  public  galleries  are  few,  there  are 
beyond  question  many,  often  of  great  excellence,  cherished 
in  private  hands. 

A  little  reflection  suggests  that  the  real  Niagara — not 
the  wearisome  depiction  of  detail,  but  the  poetic  soul  of  the 
green  flood — should  appeal  with  peculiar  force  to  the  artist 
of  marines.  I  incline  to  the  belief  that  of  all  the  myriad 
of  Niagara  studies  the  very  few  which  have  superlative  art 
excellence  find  their  merit  purely  in  the  study  of  the  move- 


146  THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

ment,  color  and  mass  effects  of  the  water.  This  phase  of 
Niagara  is  akin  to  the  ocean  and  it  is  no  grest  surprise, 
though  a  matter  of  satisfaction,  that  one  of  the  greatest  of 
marine  painters  found  his  way  to  the  banks  of  the  Niagara, 
not  to  draw  the  detail  of  the  scenery,  but  to  paint  a  master- 
piece of  the  moving  waters.  This  was  Mauritz  Frederick 
Hans  de  Haas.  The  name  de  Haas  has  an  honored  place 
in  the  art  annals  both  of  America  and  Europe.  At  least 
three  artists  of  distinction  have  borne  it.  Maurice,  to 
Anglicize  his  first  name,  was  born  in  Rotterdam  in  1832. 
His  earlier  life  and  study  were  in  that  city  and  the  Hague. 
In  1851  he  was  painting  water-colors  in  London.  Becom- 
ing a  pupil  of  Louis  Meyer, — then  recognized  as  the  great- 
est marine  painter  of  Europe — he  developed  a  style  of 
marked  character  and  excellence.  His  work  pleased  not 
only  the  artists,  but  the  public,  and  his  pictures — nearly 
always  marines — were  welcomed  for  the  principal  art  ex- 
hibitions of  Europe.  He  was  given  the  curious  appoint- 
ment of  artist  to  the  Dutch  Navy;  and  royalty  in  the  per- 
son of  Queen  Sophia  of  Holland  bought  one  of  his  best 
known  paintings  ("Dutch  Fishing  Boats"),  and  bestowed 
upon  the  artist  special  marks  of  her  favor.  In  1859,  soon 
after  his  marriage,  he  came  to  New  York,  being  induced 
thereto,  it  is  said,  by  his  friend  and  patron,  August  Belmont. 
From  that  date  until  his  death  in  1895,  ne  was  a  conspicuous 
and  honored  figure  in  the  American  art  world,  a  member  of 
the  National  Academy  of  Design  and  the  winner  of  many 
medals.  On  coming  to  Niagara,  he  spent  some  time  in  a 
study  of  its  attractions;  but,  ignoring  the  great  cataract, 
found  a  subject  worthy  of  his  genius  in  the  rapids  above 
the  falls.  There  may  be  readers  of  this  page  who  can  re- 
call having  seen  at  the  International  Exposition  in  Paris, 
in  1878,  de  Haas'  superb  picture  of  these  rapids.  It  was 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART.  147 

the  subject  of  much  comment  and  criticism,  especially  in 
the  art  press,  and  it  is  entitled  to  rank,  I  think,  among  the 
greatest  works  of  this  master  of  marine  painting. 

It  was  a  reflective  French  visitor  at  Niagara — M.  Au- 
guste  Laugel,  author  of  "Les  Etats-Unis  pendant  la  Guerre" 
(Paris,  1864) — who  thought  that  the  only  artist  who  could 
have  painted  the  scene,  the  only  one  capable  of  rendering 
"la  terrible  majestc  de  ce  spectacle,"  was  Ruysdael.  "He 
would  doubtless  have  chosen  a  day  when  the  waters  were 
darkest,  when  great  sweeping  clouds  throw  heavy  and 
threatening  shadows,  when  the  pines  bend  under  a  cold  and 
furious  wind."  I  do  not  agree  with  M.  Laugel  in  this. 
RuysdaeTs  penchant  was  for  the  melancholy  moods  of  Na- 
ture; whereas  in  my  thought  the  characteristic  aspect  of 
Niagara  is  bright  and  peaceful. 

Countless  modern  artists — those  of  note  as  well  as 
amateurs — have  painted  or  engraved  Niagara.  Harry 
Fenn's  masterpiece  is  his  "Niagara."  Joseph  Pennell  has 
made  excellent  studies  of  it.  J.  Henry  Hill,  about  1889, 
etched  a  large  plate  of  the  Canadian  Fall,  producing  a 
beautiful,  genuinely  artistic  picture.  Two  studies  in  oil, 
one  a  summer,  the  other  a  winter  view  of  the  cataracts,  by 
W.  C.  Bauer,  are  to  be  included  among  the  thoroughly  good 
modern  work  on  this  subject.  These  canvases  were  recently 
in  the  hands  of  a  New  York  dealer.  Notable,  too,  are  the 
Niagara  paintings  of  F.  V.  Du  Mond,  reproduced  in  photo- 
gravure to  illustrate  William  TrumbuU's  poem,  "The 
Legend  of  the  White  Canoe."  So  are  J.  Hamilton's  en- 
graving on  steel  from  T.  Taylor's  drawing,  and  the  steel 
plate  engraved  by  Jones,  from  Frankenstein's  painting. 
This  last,  published  many  years  ago  in  Philadelphia,  gives 
a  good  general  view  of  the  Falls,  from  Hennepin's  Point. 
An  earlier  painting,  showing  the  rapids  above  the  American 


148  THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

Fall,  and  Judge  Porter's  first  bridge,  was  engraved  and 
published  in  London  in  1831.  One  of  the  most  striking  of 
all  the  published  pictures  is  a  large  colored  lithograph,  after 
John  Bornet's  original,  showing  both  falls,  published  by 
Goupil  in  1855.  But  it  is  obviously  impossible  to  enumerate 
all  the  work — even  all  the  good  work — on  this  subject. 

Many  pictures  of  the  Niagara  Falls  have  been  published 
in  Buffalo,  but  few  of  them  are  of  a  character  to  be  in- 
cluded in  these  notes.  Mention  may  be  made  of  the  draw- 
ings of  F.  Holloway,  showing  the  American  fall  from  the 
Ferry  and  the  Horseshoe  from  Table  Rock;  these  were 
published  in  this  city  about  1860.  A  portfolio  of  Niagara 
Falls  views,  lithographed  by  Hall  &  Mooney  and  published 
from  Steele's  Press  in  1844,  has  little  art  merit,  most  of 
the  views  being  badly  redrawn  from  Bartlett.  William  H. 
Beard  painted  the  old  Lewiston  bridge,  his  picture  being 
lithographed  in  1850 ;  but  I  do  not  find  that  he  or  Buffalo's 
pioneer  artist,  James  H.  Beard,  ever  painted  the  Falls. 

Several  artists,  whose  work  is  particularly  well  known  in 
the  Niagara  region,  have  in  recent  years  produced  pictures 
of  the  Falls  which  should  have  mention  in  our  interview. 
In  the  Historical  Building  at  Buffalo  hang  Reginald  C. 
Coxe's  study  of  the  Rapids,  and  his  large  and  very  lovely 
canvas  of  the  Luna  Fall. 

Here  also  is  Raphael  Beck's  fine  painting  of  the  Falls,  a 
general  scene  from  much  the  same  point  of  view  as  Thomas 
Cole's.  Like  Cole,  Mr.  Beck  has  painted  a  primitive  Niag- 
ara with  no  buildings,  bridges  or  other  signs  of  the  white 
man's  intrusion. 

Among  the  many  interesting  pictures,  old  and  modern, 
good  and  bad,  preserved  at  Niagara  Falls,  the  visitor  is  sure 
to  study  the  fanciful,  clever  paintings  depicting  "The  Red 
Man's  Fact" — an  Indian  maid  being  swept  over  the  fall  in 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART.  149 

a  sacrificial  canoe;  and  "The  White  Man's  Fancy,"  in 
which  the  personified  Spirit  of  the  Cataract  beckons  in  the 
mist  These  paintings,  made  widely  familiar  by  process - 
reproduction,  were  painted  by  James  Francis  Brown,  resi- 
dent for  some  years  at  Niagara  Falls  and  at  Buffalo. 

Of  all  the  artists  who  have  studied  Niagara  none  ap- 
proaches in  comprehensive  thoroughness  the  work  of  Amos 
W.  Sangster.  In  the  local  annals  of  the  region  Mr.  Sang- 
ster  may  fairly  be  styled  the  artist  of  the  Niagara.  A  life- 
long resident  of  Buffalo,  he  gave  his  productive  years  to 
painting  and  etching,  usually  of  nearby  subjects.  Lake 
Erie,  I  think,  was  his  chief  delight.  He  painted,  with  un- 
common skill,  its  shores  and  waters,  in  storm  and  calm.  His 
marines,  harbor  views  and  kindred  subjects,  have  long  been 
deservedly  popular.  It  was  in  the  early  8o's  or  thereabouts 
that  he  conceived  the  laborious  project  of  illustrating  the 
Niagara  river  from  lake  to  lake.  Many  difficulties  were 
overcome,  and  the  work  was  issued  in  folio  parts,  bearing 
date  1886,  though  its  completion  was  a  year  or  so  later.  It 
was  dedicated  to  the  artist's  personal  friend,  Grover  Cleve- 
land, then  President.  The  work  includes  an  ample  descrip- 
tive text,  and  was  well  printed.  The  great  feature  of  it  is 
Mr.  Sangster's  art — one  hundred  and  fifty-three  etchings 
on  copper,  from  his  own  drawings,  many  of  them  being 
full-page  plates.  The  illustration  of  the  river  and  the  falls 
is  thorough  and  in  the  main  satisfactory;  and  some  of  the 
large  plates  rank  among  the  best  we  have  of  the  cataract 

Numerous  artists,  some  of  established  repute,  have  vis- 
ited the  Falls,  and  painted  them,  in  recent  years,  but  of  the 
ultimate  destination  of  their  canvases  I  can  only  write,  in 
some  cases,  on  newspaper  authority.  I  well  recall,  a  few 
years  ago,  a  sojourn  at  Niagara  of  Gilbert  Munger,  who 
years  before  had  been  there  and  painted  Niagara  Falls  by 


150  THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

commission  from  Emperor  William  I.  of  Germany.  For 
this  picture,  it  is  recorded,  he  was  decorated  by  his  Em- 
peror. 

Then  there  was  P.  Calderon  Cameron,  a  Scotch  artist, 
who  painted  two  vast  pictures  of  Niagara  Falls  in  winter. 
The  first  one,  after  exhibition  in  this  country  and  Europe, 
was  sold  to  H.  H.  Warner  of  Rochester — and  of  patent 
medicine  fame, — for,  it  was  stated,  $30,000.  The  huge  can- 
vas finally  met  its  fate  in  London,  where  it  was  ruined  in  a 
fire.  The  artist  had  created  some  sensation  in  painting  this 
picture,  by  having  himself  suspended  by  means  of  a  tackle 
reaching  half  way  down  the  precipice,  so  that  he  might 
make  his  studies  in  mid-air.  After  the  destruction  of  his 
picture,  Mr.  Cameron  came  again  to  Niagara — I  think  about 
1890 — and  set  up  his  easel  on  the  ice  bridge  in  the  gorge 
below  the  cataract.  The  second  painting,  as  finally  com- 
pleted, in  a  specially-built  studio  at  "River  Rest,"  near  New 
Brunswick,  N.  J.,  was  ten  feet  high  and  twenty-one  feet 
long.  It  was  described  by  a  newspaper  writer  at  the  time  of 
its  completion  as  "a  study  in  greys."  Its  present  where- 
abouts, or  ultimate  fate,  I  do  not  know. 

Another  very  large  painting  of  the  Falls  was  made  about 
1889  by  M.  Hottes,  a  Virginian,  who  claimed  to  be  the  first 
cadet  sent  from  that  State  to  West  Point  after  the  Civil 
War.  Turning  from  the  arts  of  war  to  gentler  pursuits,  he 
studied  painting  in  Munich,  being  a  fellow-student  of  Will- 
iam M.  Chase.  I  confess  ignorance  of  his  work  except  in 
regard  to  his  great  Niagara — great  at  least  in  dimensions, 
for  it  covered  190  square  feet  of  canvas,  and  was  com- 
pleted in  the  spring  of  1890,  in  a  large  hall  in  Rochester. 
Mr.  Hottes  had  begun  his  masterpiece  in  the  old  Museum 
building  on  the  Canadian  side  of  the  Falls ;  but  after  some 
months  of  work  he  concluded  that  the  mist  and  dampness 


THE   NIAGARA   IN   ART.  151 

of  that  place  were  detrimental  to  his  picture.  He  thereupon 
moved  it  to  Rochester,  where  it  was  completed.  It  was  a 
general  view  of  the  cataract  on  a  bright  summer  day,  and 
according  to  contemporary  criticism  in  the  Rochester  press 
was  "a  great  work,  and  would  do  credit  to  any  artist  of  the 
day."  What  has  become  of  it?  It  would  seem  as  if  such 
large  paintings  as  this  and  Cameron's  could  hardly  be  lost 
if  they  have  real  artistic  worth. 

These  notes  on  Niagara  in  art  would  be  sadly  incomplete 
without  some  mention  of  the  Niagara  panoramas.  The 
younger  generation  knows  nothing  of  this  form  of  enter- 
tainment. In  fact,  one  has  to  be  older  than  he  likes  to  be,  to 
remember  it  at  all — and  even  at  that,  unless  he  be  a  veritable 
patriarch,  he  will  know  little  of  the  panorama  except  in  its 
last  years.  The  genuine  old-fashioned  panorama  was  a 
popular  form  of  edifying  entertainment  more  than  a  century 
ago.  It  continued,  in  this  country,  down  to  the  Civil  War 
period ;  perhaps,  in  rural  and  remote  towns,  it  lingered  yet 
longer.  The  writer's  earliest  recollections,  which  hazily  em- 
brace such  events  as  the  siege  of  Vicksburg  and  the  death 
cf  Lincoln,  also  include,  as  of  about  that  time,  a  wonderful 
evening  spent  in  contemplation  of  a  panorama  of  "The 
Streets  of  New  York,"  as  shown  in  a  certain  village  hall. 
Still  vivid  in  memory  is  the  row  of  smoking  oil  lamps  which 
stood  on  the  edge  of  the  little  stage  as  footlights,  and  cast 
their  uncertain  beams  on  the  thoroughfares  of  the  metrop- 
olis as  they  unrolled  from  a  great  cylinder  of  canvas  planted 
upright  at  the  left  of  the  stage,  and  as  slowly  were  rolled 
up  again  on  the  right.  There  was  much  creaking  and  an  oc- 
casional hitch,  as  the  deus  ex  machina  wearied  at  the  crank. 
Most  of  what  that  panorama  showed  is  forgotten ;  but  still 
vivid  is  a  picture  of  a  fallen  horse,  probably  on  Broadway, 
with  the  crowd  characteristic  of  such  an  incident.  What  the 


152  THE   NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

lecturer  may  have  said  of  the  splendors  of  New  York  has 
wholly  faded;  but  very  distinctly  is  recalled  his  praise  of 
this  scene,  which  was  declared  to  be  "one  of  the  great  mas- 
terpieces of  American  art,"  as  perhaps  it  was.  Midway  in 
this  marvelous  entertainment  the  curtain  went  down,  while 
the  cylinders  of  canvas  were  changed  and  new  ones  set  up — 
much  as  pressmen  now  handle  their  rolls  of  printing  paper 
for  the  press ;  meanwhile  the  orchestra — a  young  woman 
at  a  melodeon — relieved  the  tedium  of  the  wait  with  mu- 
sical "pieces,"  sacred  and  patriotic.  The  climax  came  to- 
ward the  close,  when  the  canvas,  creaking  on  its  rollers, 
showed  a  regiment  of  blue-coated  soldiers  marching  past 
the  old  Astor  House ;  and  the  girl  at  the  wheezy  melodeon 
played  with  all  her  soul  and  both  hands  and  feet,  "When 
Johnny  comes  marching  Home  Again,"  and  the  crowded 
audience  of  perhaps  two  hundred  village  people  joined  in 
chorusing  the  "Hurrah!"  Oh,  yes,  the  old  panorama  was 
not  such  a  bad  entertainment  after  all,  especially  if  one  were 
a  little  boy  with  all  the  world  yet  to  see.  Grand  opera  some- 
times since  has  offered  much  less  entertainment. 

Long  before  "The  Streets  of  New  York"  toured  the 
country  in  great  canvas  rolls,  there  were  panoramas  of  Ni- 
agara. Indeed  I  suspect  that  Niagara  panoramas  were  the 
first  ones  seen  in  America,  although  in  Europe,  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  there  were  shown  panoramas  of  battles  and 
of  religious  subjects.  But  before  our  Great  West  was 
known,  Niagara  was  America's  greatest  wonder,  and  it  was 
early  painted,  not  so  much  for  American  contemplation  as 
for  exhibition  abroad.  Thus,  in  the  autumn  of  1832,  we 
find  Robert  Burford,  an  English  artist  of  speculative  bent, 
faithfully  sketching  the  Falls  and  vicinity.  He  returned  to 
London,  where  a  panorama  of  Niagara  was  painted  from 
his  drawings  and  exhibited  at  a  building  called  the  Pano- 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART.  153 

rama,  in  Leicester  Square.  The  canvas  probably  was  not 
great  in  extent,  since  (as  we  learn  from  a  surviving  pam- 
phlet which  advertised  the  show)  the  "Siege  of  Antwerp" 
was  exhibited  there  at  the  same  time.  The  painting  itself  is 
probably  long  ago  dust  or  ashes ;  but  a  folding  sketch,  which 
shows  its  main  features,  is  preserved  and  is  of  no  slight  his- 
torical value.  It  indicates  the  location  of  buildings  long 
since  gone  if  not  forgotten,  among  them  Forsyth's  hotel,  the 
old  stairway,  the  guide's  house,  etc.,  on  the  Canadian  side; 
and  Whitney's  hotel  on  the  American.  What  is  now  known 
as  Luna  Fall  is  here  named  Montmorency ! 

Bur  ford's  panorama  was  apparently  used  to  promote 
public  interest  in  a  projected  City  of  the  Falls,  which  it  was 
proposed  to  build  on  the  Canadian  Heights  above  the  catar- 
act. The  prospectus  of  this  city  which  was  offered  to  the 
London  investor  of  1832  was  in  a  literary  way  as  great  a 
work  of  art  as  the  panorama.  It  was  pictured  as  the  pros- 
pective rival  of  the  most  famous  European  resorts,  "where 
the  most  secluded  privacy  can  be  enjoyed  in  the  midst  of  the 
most  refined  society,  yet  so  regulated,  that  Economy,  Recre- 
ation and  Pleasure  are  united — where  the  well-dressed  and 
well-conducted,  without  reference  to  rank  or  wealth,  may, 
and  do,  mingle  with  Lords,  Grandees  and  Princes."  Al- 
though the  Canadian  City  of  the  Falls  has  not  developed 
quite  on  the  lines  emphasized  in  the  prospectus  of  1832,  it 
has  grown  into  a  comfortable  community  with  a  national 
pleasure-ground  of  surpassing  beauty  and  industrial  feat- 
ures which  would  vastly  have  surprised  the  promoters  in 
the  days  of  Burford's  panorama. 

Other  panoramas  of  which  I  have  record  were  Brewer's, 
shown  in  American  cities  in  the  'SG'S,  made  up,  apparently, 
of  canvases  of  "Niagara  River  and  Falls  in  summer  and 
winter,"  the  Mammoth  Cave  and  the  Prairies;  and  the 


154  THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

Baker-street  Bazaar  in  London,  where  in  this  decade  of  the 
'50*5,  was  exhibited  the  "Grand  Moving  Mirror  of  Ameri- 
can Scenery,  painted  on  25,000  feet  of  canvas,  comprising 
the  Falls  of  Niagara,  the  Mammoth  Cave  of  Kentucky," 
etc.  Possibly  those  two  art-expositions  were  identical. 

The  name  of  G.  N.  Frankenstein  may  not  hold  a  familiar 
place  on  the  roll  of  American  art.  Little  seems  to  be  re- 
corded of  him.  Cincinnati  claimed  him,  I  believe;  and,  if 
ihe  Press  can  be  believed  (and  why  not?),  his  achievements 
in  the  realms  of  art  were  of  the  most  notable.  His  one  ac- 
complishment in  which  we  are  interested  was  the  making 
of  one  hundred  original  paintings  of  Niagara  Falls,  as 
studies  for  his  panorama  of  the  great  cataract.  The  New 
York  press  of  1853,  in  which  I  rind  some  mention  of  him, 
did  not  lack  in  praise.  His  genius  was  regarded  as  beyond 
question.  We  can  only  judge  now  of  the  quality  of  his 
work,  by  what  was  said  of  it  at  the  time.  At  any  rate,  he 
had  the  high  virtue  of  industry,  for  he  was  often  at  Niagara, 
from  about  1840  to  1852.  In  Harper's  Monthly  of  1853, 
may  be  found  some  account  of  his  work,  with  many  wood- 
cuts from  his  paintings,  and  a  picture  of  the  artist  himself, 
in  winter  garb,  standing  in  the  snow  before  his  easel,  dili- 
gently painting  the  winter  scene.  "The  artist  whose  labors 
we  have  so  largely  borrowed,"  writes  the  editor,  "has  made 
the  study  of  the  great  cataract  a  labor  of  love.  He  has 
summered  and  wintered  by  it.  He  has  painted  it  by  night 
and  by  day ;  by  sunlight  and  by  moonlight ;  under  a  sum- 
mer sun,  and  amid  the  rigors  of  a  Canadian  winter,  when 
the  grey  rocks  wore  an  icy  robe  and  the  spray  congealed 
into  icicles  upon  his  stiffened  garments.  The  sketches  from 
which  we  have  selected  have  grown  up  under  his  hands  for 
a  half  score  of  years."  If  one  may  judge  by  all  this  herald- 
ing, Frankenstein's  panorama  was  a  real  work  of  art;  but 


THE  NIAGARA   IN   ART.  155 

whatever  its  merit,  it  no  doubt  long  ago  passed  into  the 
limbo  of  the  forgotten. 

There  may  have  been  yet  other  panoramas  of  our  catar- 
act; but  it  must  suffice  to  notice  the  latest,  if  not  the  last, 
which  was  for  a  time  famous  as  the  Cyclorama  of  Niagara. 
It  was  an  enterprise  chiefly  promoted  by  several  gentlemen 
of  Buffalo,  who  put  a  generous  amount  of  money  into  it, 
and  for  a  time  enjoyed  the  prospect  of  rich  returns.  That 
these  were  not  realized  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  art  side 
of  the  affair,  which  is  the  only  side  suitable  for  considera- 
tion here.  It  came  about  that  Paul  Philippoteaux,  a  very 
clever  French  artist,  son  of  a  yet  more  eminent  sire,  Felix 
Philippoteaux,  was  commissioned  to  paint  Niagara  Falls. 
He  was  an  artist  of  established  reputation;  the  pupil  of 
Cabanel  and  Leon  Cogniet,  the  winner  of  first  medals  at 
the  £coles  des  Beaux  Arts  and  of  the  Prix  de  Rome  compe- 
titions. He  had  already  painted  several  cycloramas,  among 
them  the  long-popular  Battle  of  Gettysburg,  when  in  1886, 
he  was  engaged  for  the  "Niagara."  Of  several  assistants 
who  shared  with  him  the  making  of  the  gigantic  picture, 
Adrien  Shulz,  at  any  rate,  is  entitled  to  notice.  He  was  a 
Parisian,  pupil  of  Dardoize  and  Hanoteau,  and  his  pictures 
had  for  many  years  been  features  of  the  Salon. 

In  the  spring  of  1888  the  Cyclorama  of  Niagara  was 
opened  to  the  London  public,  in  York  Street,  Westminster. 
As  was  to  be  expected,  considering  the  artists,  it  was  genu- 
inely a  work  of  art.  The  painting  was  delightful,  the  man- 
ner of  exhibition — the  spectators  viewing  it  with  all  favor- 
able accessories  of  light,  from  the  midst  of  the  great  circle 
which  it  formed — was  pleasing  and  effective;  and  for  a 
time  the  London  public  flocked  to  see  it.  The  canvas  was 
four  hundred  feet  long — or  rather,  when  set  up,  four  hun- 
dred feet  in  circumference ;  and  fifty  feet  high.  Here  were 


156  THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

twenty  thousand  square  feet  of  Niagara  beauty,  majesty  and 
power  made  visible  even  to  the  stay-at-home  British  public, 
at  a  shilling  a  head.  So  successful  was  it,  for  a  time,  that 
M.  Philippoteaux  painted  a  second  Niagara.  This  was  sold 
to  an  English  company,  with  a  view  to  exhibition  on  the 
continent.  Whatever  was  the  fate  of  that  painting,  the 
present  chronicler  knows  not.  Many  and  vexatious  busi- 
ness troubles  arising,  the  original  painting  was  brought  to 
America,  and  exhibited,  with  discouraging  returns,  at 
Chicago.  I  have  not  traced  its  subsequent  fortunes.  It  has 
not  been  exhibited  for  some  years,  and  is  probably  in  the 
oblivion  of  storage. 

The  principal  public  art  collections  of  America  contain 
few  paintings  of  the  Niagara  cataract  or  rapids.  The  Cor- 
coran Gallery  at  Washington  easily  leads  the  list  with  its 
incomparable  Church.  The  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  Fine 
Arts  at  Philadelphia  has  an  interesting  miniature  of  Niag- 
ara Falls,  from  the  capable  brush  of  William  Russel  Birch. 
George  Loring  Brown  painted  a  "Niagara  by  Moonlight," 
which  sketches  of  that  artist  state  is  owned  in  Maiden, 
Mass. ;  and  in  the  Detroit  Museum  hangs  Mortimer  L. 
Smith's  "Niagara  Falls  in  Winter." 

The  Carnegie  Institute,  Pittsburgh;  the  Albright  Art 
Gallery,  Buffalo;  the  City  Art  Museum  of  St.  Louis;  the 
Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts;  the  Art  Museum  of 
Worcester,  Mass.;  the  Art  Institute  of  Chicago;  the  Cin- 
cinnati Museum;  and  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art, 
New  York  City,  contain  in  their  collections  no  paintings  of 
Niagara  Falls. 

That  they  do  not  is  hardly  matter  of  surprise.  What 
may  be  termed  the  great  passages  in  Nature,  do  not  neces- 
sarily inspire  great  art.  Our  art  galleries  probably  would 
be  searched  in  vain  for  pictures  of  the  Mississippi  or  the 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART.  157 

Amazon,  the  Falls  of  the  Zambesi,  Mount  Everest  or — shall 
we  say — Mount  Blanc  or  Washington.  These  things  make 
no  particular  appeal  to  the  artist,  because  of  the  qualities 
which  give  them  preeminence  in  geography. 

It  used  to  be  said  of  Niagara  Falls,  as  no  doubt  of  other 
unusual  phases  of  Nature,  that  "they  cannot  be  painted." 
This  attitude  of  mind  is  illustrated  by  the  following  passage 
from  C.  F.  Arfwedson,  who  toured  hereabouts  three-quar- 
ters of  a  century  ago : 

"Long  before  I  arrived  at  Niagara,  I  had  often  and 
repeatedly  been  told  that  it  is  not  in  the  power  of  man  to 
describe  and  paint  these  falls  in  true  colors.  I  even  met 
with  Americans  who  went  so  far  as  to  consider  it  a  sacrilege 
to  attempt  to  depict  Niagara  by  word,  pen,  or  pencil.  One 
day — I  still  have  a  lively  recollection  of  my  surprise — I 
happened  to  pass  a  bookseller's  shop  in  New  York,  in  com- 
pany with  a  native  American;  several  excellent  drawings 
of  Niagara  were  exposed  in  the  window  for  general  inspec- 
tion. I  stopped,  and  drew  his  attention  to  them,  expressing, 
at  the  same  time,  my  delight  at  the  various  engravings. 
Uncertain  whether  I  actually  meant  what  I  said,  he  eyed 
me  a  long  while  with  a  penetrating  look,  and  exclaimed  at 
last,  with  a  sneer,  'You  have  not  seen  Niagara!'  and  then 
cut  short  his  conversation.  This  remark  hurt  me  at  the 
time,  and  I  was  almost  resolved  to  follow  the  example  of  a 
certain  traveller,  who  heard  so  much  said  of  the  waterworks 
at  Philadelphia  that  he  determined  not  to  see  them  at  all. 
Luckily  I  did  not  act  upon  the  same  principle  at  Niagara; 
but  my  curiosity  became  so  excited,  that  I  can  only  compare 
it  to  the  sensation  I  felt  when  entering  Rome  for  the  first 
time,  or  wandering  in  the  streets  of  Pompeii.  In  truth, 
there  are  no  words  expressive  enough,  no  pen  gifted  with 
sufficient  inspiration,  no  pencil  endowed  with  an  adequate 
share  of  poetical  imagination,  to  describe  Niagara  as  it 
actually  is." 


IBS  THE  NIAGARA   IN  ART. 

In  a  more  confident  vein  is  the  following  comment  by 
Anthony  Trollope : 

"I  came  across  an  artist  at  Niagara  who  was  attempting 
to  draw  the  spray  of  the  waters.  'You  have  a  difficult 
subject,'  said  I.  'All  subjects  are  difficult/  he  replied,  'to  a 
man  who  desires  to  do  well.'  'But  yours,  I  fear,  is  impos- 
sible/ I  said.  'You  have  no  right  to  say  so  till  I  have 
finished  my  picture/  he  replied.  I  acknowledged  the  justice 
of  his  rebuke,  regretted  that  I  could  not  remain  till  the  com- 
pletion of  his  work  should  enable  me  to  revoke  my  words, 
and  passed  on.  Then  I  began  to  reflect  whether  I  did  not 
intend  to  try  a  task  as  difficult  in  describing  the  Falls,  and 
whether  I  felt  any  of  that  proud  self-confidence  which  kept 
him  happy  at  any  rate  while  his  task  was  in  hand.  I  will 
not  say  that  it  is  as  difficult  to  describe  aright  that  rush  of 
waters,  as  it  is  to  paint  it  well.  But  I  doubt  whether  it  is 
not  quite  as  difficult  to  write  a  description  that  shall  interest 
the  reader,  as  it  is  to  paint  a  picture  of  them  that  shall  be 
pleasant  to  the  beholder." 

As  for  mere  painting,  the  work  of  a  Church  proves  that 
the  Falls  can  be  painted,  not  merely  with  realism,  but  with 
subtlest  spirit.  In  a  word,  then  (to  be  done  with  this)  : 
Is  it  not  true  of  the  painter  as  the  poet,  that  he  carries  his 
greatness  with  him,  and  does  not  find  it  lying  in  wait  at  this 
or  that  specially  distinguished  spot  of  the  earth  ?  The  pho- 
tographer, I  grant,  comes  grandly  into  his  own  at  a  Niagara 
Falls ;  but  Nature's  highest  appeals  are  largely  independent 
of  the  accidents  of  rock  and  water.  The  painter's  noblest 
art  never  can  find  its  supreme  expression  in  merely  depict- 
ing the  physical,  no  matter  on  how  grand  a  scale  it  is  pre- 
sented in  Nature. 


JOHN  VANDERLYN'S 
VISIT  TO  NIAGARA  FALLS  IN  1802 


first  American  artist  to  visit  and  paint  Niagara 
•*•  Falls,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn,  was  John 
Vanderlyn.  In  preceding  pages  (129-130)  I  have  made 
brief  note  of  his  work.  As  there  has  come  into  my  hands 
a  hitherto  unpublished  narrative  of  his  visit  to  Niagara  in 
1802,  it  seems  appropriate,  in  printing  it,  to  add  some 
further  facts  regarding  his  eventful  career. 

There  exists  no  published  biography  of  Vanderlyn. 
Many  years  ago  the  story  of  his  life  was  written,  either  by 
himself  or  from  his  dictation,  but  while  in  the  hands  of  a 
New  York  publisher  the  manuscript  was  destroyed  by  fire. 
Much  material  was  then  lost  which  could  not  be  replaced; 
there  still  exists,  however,  much  regarding  him  which  it  is 
hoped  may  yet  be  put  before  the  public  by  a  competent  and 
sympathetic  hand.  Vanderlyn  was  a  striking  figure  in  the 
art  history  of  America,  and  his  relations  with  Aaron  Burr 
and  other  celebrities  of  his  day  give  to  his  career  an 
exceptional  interest. 

James  Parton,  in  his  "Life  and  Times  of  Aaron  Burr," 
has  told  the  story  of  Burr's  first  meeting  with  Vanderlyn: 

"The  interest  which  Colonel  Burr  took  in  the  education 
of  youth  has  been  before  alluded  to.  He  always  had  a 
protege  in  training,  upon  whose  culture  he  bestowed  un- 
wearied pains  and  more  money  than  he  could  always  afford. 
The  story  of  Vanderlyn,  the  most  distinguished  protege  he 

IS9 


160  JOHN   VANDERLYN'S   VISIT 

ever  had,  was  one  which  was  often  related  in  these  later 
years. 

"He  was  riding  along  in  a  curricle  and  pair,  one  day 
during  his  senatorial  term,  when  one  of  his  horses  lost  a 
shoe;  and  he  stopped  at  the  next  blacksmith's  to  have  it 
replaced.  It  was  a  lonely  country  place,  not  far  from 
Kingston,  in  Ulster  county,  New  York.  He  strolled  about 
while  the  blacksmith  was  at  work,  and,  returning,  saw  upon 
the  side  of  a  stable  near  by,  a  charcoal  drawing  of  his 
own  curricle  and  horses.  The  picture,  which  must  have 
been  executed  in  a  very  few  minutes,  was  wonderfully 
accurate  and  spirited,  and  he  stood  admiring  it  for  some 
time.  Turning  round,  he  noticed  a  boy  a  little  way  off, 
dressed  in  coarse  homespun. 

"  'Who  did  that  ?'  inquired  Burr,  pointing  to  the  picture. 

"  'I  did  it,"  said  the  boy. 

"The  astonished  traveler  entered  into  conversation  with 
the  lad,  found  him  intelligent,  though  ignorant,  learned  that 
he  was  born  in  the  neighborhood,  had  had  no  instruction 
in  drawing,  and  was  engaged  to  work  for  the  blacksmith 
six  months.  Burr  wrote  a  few  words  on  a  piece  of  paper, 
and  said,  as  he  wrote: 

"  'My  boy,  you  are  too  smart  a  fellow  to  stay  here  all 
your  life.  If  ever  you  should  want  to  change  your  em- 
ployment and  see  the  world,  just  put  a  clean  shirt  in  your 
pocket,  go  to  New  York,  and  go  straight  to  that  address,' 
handing  the  boy  the  paper. 

"He  then  mounted  his  curricle  and  was  out  of  sight  in  a 
moment.  Several  months  passed  away,  and  the  circum- 
stances had  nearly  faded  from  the  busy  senator's  recollec- 
tion. As  he  was  sitting  at  breakfast  one  morning,  at 
Richmond  Hill,  a  servant  put  into  his  hand  a  small  paper 
parcel,  saying  that  it  was  brought  by  a  boy  who  was  waiting 
outside.  Burr  opened  the  parcel,  and  found  a  coarse, 
country-made  clean  shirt.  Supposing  it  to  be  a  mistake,  he 
ordered  the  boy  to  be  shown  in.  Who  should  enter  but 
the  Genius  of  the  Roadside,  who  placed  in  Burr's  hand  the 
identical  piece  of  paper  he  had  given  him.  The  lad  was 


TO   NIAGARA   FALLS  IN   1802.  161 

warmly  welcomed.  Burr  took  him  into  his  family,  educated 
him,  and  procured  him  instruction  in  the  art  which  nature 
had  indicated  should  be  the  occupation  of  his  life-time. 
Afterward,  Burr  assisted  him  to  Europe,  where  he  spent 
five  years  in  the  study  of  painting,  and  became  an  artist 
worthy  of  the  name." 

Regarding  this  story,  of  which  there  are  several  versions, 
one  of  Vanderlyn's  friends  sent  a  letter  of  correction  to 
the  historian,  Parton,  when  his  Life  of  Burr  was  first  pub- 
lished; the  letter  is  appended  to  the  later  editions  of  that 
work.  The  writer  was  Robert  Gosman,  now  deceased,  son 
of  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Gosman,  who  in  1808  became  the 
pastor  of  the  old  Dutch  church  in  Kingston,  and  was  its 
first  pastor  to  preach  in  the  English  language.  Robert 
Gosman  wrote  with  an  intimate  knowledge  which  could  not 
be  questioned,  and  I  can  do  no  better  than  to  quote  a  portion 
of  his  letter  correcting  Parton,  as  it  forms  our  most  authori- 
tative statement  as  to  the  early  years  of  the  first  American 
artist  who  painted  Niagara  Falls : 

"RONDOUT,  N.  Y.,  February  n,  1858. 

"...  Vanderlyn  honored  me  with  his  confidence 
during  the  last  five  years  of  his  life.  I  minuted,  at  his 
request,  from  his  own  lips,  the  principal  events  of  his  career. 
As  is  ever  the  case  with  the  aged,  the  incidents  of  his 
earlier  life  were  most  vividly  recalled.  The  circumstances 
of  his  first  acquaintance  with  Colonel  Burr,  and  the  friend- 
ship and  favor  with  which  that  eminent  man  honored  him, 
were  favorite  subjects  of  discourse;  and  I  recorded  many 
anecdotes  illustrative  of  the  character  of  'his  best  friend.' 
This  but  added  to  the  strength  of  a  conviction  I  had  had 
for  many  years,  that  the  popular  idea  of  Burr's  character 
was  erroneous,  and  would  be  corrected  in  time.  But  to 
my  purpose,  which  was  to  correct  the  anecdote  as  to 
Vanderlyn  in  your  recent  biography  of  Colonel  Burr.  That 


162  JOHN    VANDERLYN'S    VISIT 

is  related  by  you,  in  the  main,  as  it  had  been  in  circulation 
for  many  years.  But  it  is  an  invention  purely. 

"Vanderlyn  was  born  at  Kingston,  in  1775.  His  grand- 
father, a  Hollander,  was  a  portrait  painter  of  decided 
talent,  though  he  did  not  make  painting  a  profession;  his 
father  had  the  same  taste  and  bias;  and  from  his  earliest 
years  John  Vanderlyn  showed  the  direction  of  his  powers. 
The  Vanderlyn  family  were  in  comfortable  circumstances 
and  highly  esteemed.  John  was  educated  at  Kingston 
Academy,  then  an  institution  of  high  standing,  and  was  a 
proficient  in  the  classics.  At  the  age  of  seventeen  he  passed 
a  year  in  New  York,  and  had,  in  a  paint  and  color  shop, 
and  at  an  evening  drawing-school,  some  very  seasonable 
advantages.  He  turned  his  attention  to  oil  painting  the 
summer  afterwards,  copying  at  home  two  of  Stuart's  por- 
traits lent  by  a  friend,  one  being  that  of  Colonel  Burr. 
This  copy  was  purchased  by  the  then  representative  in 
Congress  from  this  district,  who  was  a  warm  friend  of 
Colonel  Burr,  and  who  mentioned  the  fact  to  the  Colonel 
at  the  session  of  1795,  the  latter  being  then  in  the  Federal 
Senate.  'Colonel  Burr  never  forgot  anything,'  as  Vanderlyn 
frequently  said,  and  he  did  not  forget  that  his  friend  had 
spoken  very  warmly  of  the  decided  talent  of  the  youthful 
painter. 

"In  the  summer  following,  Vanderlyn,  when  at  New 
York,  received  a  note  without  signature,  asking  him  to  call 
at  a  certain  place.  He  did  so ;  it  was  the  office  of  Colonel 
Burr;  and  at  the  instance  of  J.  B.  Prevost,  who  was  there, 
and  who  said  the  note  was  in  the  Colonel's  handwriting, 
Vanderlyn  proceeded  to  the  residence  of  Burr,  at  Richmond 
Hill.  The  young  artist  was  warmly  met  by  Colonel  Burr, 
became  an  inmate  of  his  house  for  several  weeks,  fulfilling 
orders  which  came  through  his  friend;  and  in  the  autumn 
of  1795  he  was  placed  under  the  instruction  of  Gilbert 
Stuart,  at  Philadelphia. 

"Vanderlyn  remained  with  Stuart  about  a  year,  when 
the  latter  told  Colonel  Burr  he  had  taught  him  all  he  could, 
and  said  he  was  then  ready  for  Paris.  Colonel  Burr  pro- 


TO   NIAGARA   FALLS   IN   1802.  163 

vided  his  young  friend  with  the  means;  Vanderlyn  went 
to  Paris  in  1796,  remaining  there  between  four  and  five 
years,  and  enjoying  all  the  advantages  of  its  admirable 
schools  in  art.  .  .  . 

"On  the  occasion  of  Burr's  Parisian  sojourn  (1810-11), 
he  assisted  Vanderlyn  pecuniarily,  instead  of  the  latter 
assisting  him.  Vanderlyn  was  always  in  straitened  cir- 
cumstances, and  never  more  so  than  at  that  time.  He  was 
generous  to  a  fault,  but  rarely  had  a  louis  which  was  not 
mortgaged  ten  deep.  The  'Marius  at  Carthage'  was  the 
only  picture  he  ever  exhibited  at  the  Louvre,  or  indeed 
anywhere  else  in  Europe;  though  he  painted  his  'Ariadne,' 
and  made  some  remarkable  copies  from  Correggio  and 
other  masters  during  his  abode  there. 

"I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully  yours, 

"ROBT.   GOSMAN." 

The  omitted  portions  of  Mr.  Gosman's  letter  relate  to 
current  charges  against  the  character  of  Aaron  Burr,  with 
which  we  are  not  in  the  present  connection,  interested. 

Returning  to  America  in  1801,  Vanderlyn  found  himself 
in  a  high  tide  of  favor.  He  was  welcomed  as  a  youth  of 
great  accomplishments  and  still  greater  promise.  In 
Washington  he  became  a  member  of  the  household  of 
Aaron  Burr,  who  was  then  Vice  President ;  and  there  and 
in  New  York  he  was  made  much  of,  socially,  and  received 
many  requests  to  paint  portraits.  He  refused  all  commis- 
sions at  this  time,  however,  but  painted  the  portraits  of 
Burr  and  his  daughter  Theodosia,  both  in  profile  and  both 
now  widely  known  through  engravings.  He  was  appar- 
ently the  most  popular  if  not  the  most  capable  artist  in 
America  when  in  the  autumn  of  1802  he  set  out  with  a 
friend  for  Niagara  Falls.  The  narrative  of  that  tour  was 
taken  down  in  later  years,  from  the  artist's  dictation,  by 
the  late  Robert  Gosman.  The  original  manuscript  is  now 
owned  by  the  Rev.  Roswell  Randall  Hoes,  chaplain  in  the 


164  JOHN   VANDERLYN'S   VISIT 

United  States  Navy,  stationed  at  Norfolk,  Va. ;  through  his 
courtesy  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society  is  enabled  to  give 
it,  herewith,  its  first  publication : 

JOHN   VANDERLYN'S   NIAGARA   VISIT   IN    1802. 

In  the  latter  part  of  September,  1802,  Vanderlyn,  with 
a  young  nephew,  took  his  way  to  Niagara  Falls.  He  pur- 
chased a  horse  and  hired  a  chaise,  and  with  as  little  baggage 
as  was  compatible  with  the  supposed  exigencies  of  a  journey 
through  a  wilderness  comparatively,  and  his  sketching  mate- 
rials, proceeded  from  Kingston,  up  the  west  bank  of  the 
Hudson.  Our  travellers  followed  the  ordinary  route  from 
Albany  to  Schenectady,  thence  ascending  the  valley  of  the 
Mohawk  to  Utica. 

It  was  on  the  first  of  October  that,  in  passing  over  the 
then  high  hill  at  Little  Falls,  the  first  sketch  taken  on  this 
journey  was  made.  Here  the  artist  caught  a  fine  view  of 
the  Genesee  Flats,  with  a  grandly  rugged  foreground,  and 
the  turbulent  Mohawk  eddying  and  foaming  among  the 
rocks,  partially  hidden  by  huge  tangled  and  rough  forest 
trees  clinging  to  its  precipitous  banks. 

Utica  was  then  a  small  town,  just  emerging  from  the 
condition  of  a  trading  post  and  frontier  station;  and 
having  lost  the  picturesque  character  and  attributes  of  a 
garrison  town  without,  as  yet,  having  acquired  the  grace 
or  comforts  of  advanced  civilization.  There  was  however 
a  very  comfortable  tavern,  for  the  travel  to  "the  Genesee 
country"  was  becoming  very  great. 

Simeon  DeWitt,  the  State  Surveyor  General,  had  already 
passed  over  the  country  with  his  Lempriere  in  hand,  erasing 
the  Indian  nomenclature,  and  giving  to  townships  and 
villages,  names  ludicrous  in  their  misapplication,  and  pro- 
voking the  most  biting  comparisons.  Rome  then  existed, 
but  it  was  an  aggregation  of  small  temporary  dwellings 
redolent  of  discomfort,  and  a  half  century  could  not  efface 
from  the  artist's  memory  a  most  vigorous  remembrance  of 
the  activity  and  sleeplessness  of  the  Roman  fleas. 


TO   NIAGARA   FALLS  IN   1802.  165 

Passing  from  Rome  to  Onondaga  Hollow,  the  travellers 
met  an  Indian,  a  drunken  Onondaga,  bottle  in  hand,  singing 
as  a  refrain  "We  sell  all  dis,"  and  sweeping  an  imaginary 
boundary  line.  A  few  coppers  persuaded  the  semi-savage 
to  halt  whilst  the  artist  took  his  rapid  sketch.  The  after 
history  of  this  sketch  is  so  curious,  that  it  deserves  note.  A 
year  or  two  afterwards  Vanderlyn  met,  at  a  friend's,  in 
Paris,  an  ecclesiastic — of  Italian  birth,  we  believe — of  very 
benevolent  turn  and  warmly  commiserating  the  condition 
of  the  American  aborigines.  The  little  he  knew  of  them 
seemed  to  be  drawn  from  the  history  of  Jesuit  missions. 
He  anxiously  enquired  of  Mr.  Vanderlyn,  on  learning  that 
he  was  an  American,  as  to  the  condition  of  the  Indians  in 
New  York.  The  artist  quietly  replied  that  he  could  give 
his  reverence  an  answer  briefly,  directly  and  professionally, 
if  he  would  call  at  his  lodgings  next  day.  The  good  father 
did  call,  and  Vanderlyn,  without  a  word,  put  into  his  hands 
this  sketch  of  the  drunken  Oneida  as  a  statement  in  brief 
of  the  condition  of  his  race.  It  is  equally  complimentary 
to  the  penetration  of  the  priest  and  the  force  of  the  artist's 
pencil,  that  he  took  the  reply  to  its  fullest  extent  at  a 
glance.  He  judiciously  dealt  out  his  anathemas,  not  on  the 
poor  savage,  but  on  his  tempters  and  destroyers,  laid  down 
the  sketch  with  a  sigh,  and,  though  he  and  Vanderlyn  met 
frequently  afterwards  never  reverted  to  the  subject. 

After  dipping  into  Oneida  Hollow  the  travellers  ascended 
a  hill  whence  they  caught  a  glimpse  of  Oneida  lake,  and  an 
inadequate  sketch  was  added  to  the  memorials  of  the  tour. 
Till  reaching  Manlius,  the  highway  had  been  tolerable,  but 
thence  it  was  so  decidedly  bad,  even  for  a  backwoods  road, 
that  the  "chaise"  was  abandoned,  with  a  bargain  to  have  it 
sent  back  to  Albany,  another  horse  was  purchased,  and 
the  residue  of  the  journey  to  Niagara  made  on  horseback. 
Their  first  day's  travel  as  cavaliers  was  marked  by  meeting 
a  lawyer  of  Vanderlyn's  acquaintance,  and  the  rencontre 
was  attended  with  the  usually  disastrous  consequences  of 
such  meetings.  The  lawyer  tendered  his  advice  as  to  a 
short-cut  road;  it  was  followed;  and  the  natural  conse- 


166  JOHN   VANDERLYN'S    VISIT 

quence  was  that  they  consumed  several  hours  in  toiling  to 
a  deserted  clearing  at  its  end,  bringing  about  a  catastrophe 
equivalent  to  a  nonsuit,  and  compelling  a  retracement  of 
their  steps  and  proceedings  de  novo. 

The  artist  spoke  of  his  sensations  on  this,  his  first 
experience  of  the  painful  solitude  of  an  unbroken  forest. 
Any  sound  would  have  been  a  relief — any  sight  breaking 
the  sameness  of  the  long  walls  of  trees  hemming  them  in,  a 
blessing  indeed.  There  was  no  breeze  to  stir  the  foliage; 
and  the  hot  noontide  sun  pouring  upon  the  expanse  of 
decaying  vegetable  matter,  engendered  an  oppressive  and 
sickening  atmosphere.  The  dead  level  of  the  road  was 
peculiarly  wearisome  to  a  wayfarer  from  a  land  of  moun- 
tains and  valleys,  and  once  it  was  seriously  debated  whether 
it  would  not  be  best  to  turn  back  to  the  Hudson.  In  all  his 
subsequent  journeyings,  Mr.  Vanderlyn  declared,  he  never 
passed  through  a  more  repellant  country,  and  said  he  was 
convinced  it  would  not  be  settled  for  a  century. 

At  Cayuga  Bridge  the  travellers  were  most  kindly  enter- 
tained by  Gen.  John  Swartwout.  Thence  they  skirted  the 
sandy  beach  to  reach  Geneva,  then  a  small  village  on  the 
hill  above  the  lake.  The  lake  did  not  strike  the  artist  very 
forcibly,  for  with  his  mind  intent  upon  the  grander  aspects 
of  nature  towards  which  he  was  wending,  the  placid  beauty 
of  that  charming  sheet  of  water  with  all  its  unbroken  sylvan 
surroundings  seemed  tame  and  lifeless. 

From  Geneva  to  Canandaigua,  the  travellers  made  their 
sore  way  over  "a  corduroy  road,"  or  a  road  made  of  logs 
laid  crosswise  in  the  swampy  soil,  its  inequalities  unmiti- 
gated by  the  slightest  covering  of  earth.  A  little  girl  at 
Canandaigua,  said  Mr.  Vanderlyn,  described  it  more  accu- 
rately than  he  had  ever  heard  it,  by  calling  it  "the  bump, 
bump  road." 

At  Canandaigua  the  travellers  were  hospitably  received 
by  Mr.  Thomas  Morris,  to  whom  they  were  introduced  by 
a  letter  from  Colonel  Burr.  Their  host  at  parting  gave 
Mr.  Vanderlyn  letters  to  Judge  Hamilton  of  Queenston, 
Canada,  and  other  Canadian  gentlemen,  which  were  ex- 


TO   NIAGARA   FALLS  IN   1802.  167 

ceedingly  useful.  Mr.  Morris  highly  commended  the  idea 
of  the  artist  to  visit  Genesee  Falls  prior  to  Niagara,  "for," 
he  remarked,  "after  seeing  the  latter,  Genesee  is  hardly 
worth  a  glance.  But,"  said  he,  "it  is  a  place  which  will  be 
known  hereafter,  for  there  is  a  capital  water  power." 

The  travellers  turned  off  to  Genesee  Falls,  now  the  site 
of  the  city  of  Rochester.  The  germ  of  the  present  thriving 
town  with  its  dozen  giant  mills,  consisted  of  a  solitary  farm 
house  and  a  primitive  grist  mill.  The  Genesee  river  falling 
over  three  ledges  formed  three  distinct  falls.  Now  the 
whole  stream  is  diverted  to  furnish  power  for  the  mills, 
and  all  the  primitive  aspect  of  the  scene  is  lost.  A  finished 
pen  and  ink  sketch  of  the  Falls  of  the  Genesee  by  the 
artist's  hand,  is  still  in  existence.  Mr.  Vanderlyn  and 
comrade  found  homely  but  bounteous  entertainment  at  the 
farm  house  spoken  of,  and  as  a  farther  act  of  hospitality, 
their  host  got  up  a  raccoon  hunt  by  torchlight,  which  proved 
highly  successful. 

From  the  junction  of  the  cross  road  to  Genesee  Falls 
and  the  main  route,  to  the  next  inn  was  twenty  miles,  twelve 
of  it  being  unbroken  forest.  Night  closed  upon  them  as 
the  travellers  were  toiling  wearily  over  the  log  causeway 
of  a  morass,  for  they  were  unhappily  in  the  heart  of  "the 
endless  swamp  of  Tonawanta."  It  was  moonlight,  and 
though  this  aided  their  progress,  it  sadly  bewildered  them 
by  giving  in  the  fantasies  of  light  and  shade,  hints  to  imagi- 
nation which  detected  crouching  beasts  of  prey  in  the 
gloom,  and  pictured  imaginary  houses  in  the  distance. 
There  was  no  lack  of  strange  sounds  in  this  wilderness, 
the  hoot  of  an  owl  being  occasionally  blended  with  the 
scream  of  a  panther.  More  jaded  in  mind  than  body,  the 
travellers  reached  a  clearing  and  saw  a  cheering  light,  just 
as  they  had  decided  to  try  and  perch  in  a  tree  till  day- 
break. The  haven  of  rest  proved  to  be  a  rude  log  house, 
where  they  were  received  at  midnight  and  with  backwoods 
kindness  treated  to  the  best  the  cabin  afforded.  No  inci- 
dent of  moment  occurred  prior  to  the  arrival  of  Mr. 
Vanderlyn  and  his  nephew  at  New  Amsterdam,  now  more 


168  JOHN   VANDERLYN'S   VISIT 

appropriately  called  Buffaloe.  The  place  was  then  little 
more  than  a  cluster  of  log  huts,  so  uninviting  that  the 
travellers  crossed  to  Canada,  where  they  found  the  evi- 
dences of  an  older  and  more  thriving  country  and  got 
comfortable  quarters  at  a  stone  farm  house. 

From  this  point,  Chippewa,  even  then  a  small  village 
though  little  more  now,  was  twenty  miles  distant.  The 
cloud  of  mist  from  Niagara  greeted  the  pilgrims  some 
eighteen  miles  from  the  cataract  and  its  roar  was  heard  two 
miles.  Vanderlyn  remained  at  Niagara  twelve  days,  having 
reached  [there]  about  mid  October.  After  a  day  of  needed 
rest  at  Chippewa  the  artist  took  up  his  comfortable  quarters 
at  Burden's  farm  house  hard  by  the  cataract — so  near  in 
fact — say  800  yards — that  a  constant  tremor  pervaded  the 
house  and  all  its  belongings,  rendering  a  new  comer  rather 
nervous  till  custom  caused  it  to  be  unnoticeable.  A  fork 
stuck  into  the  floor  would  quiver  like  an  aspen. 

In  1802  there  was  no  crossing  for  miles  above  and 
below  the  Falls,  and  all  Vanderlyn's  sketches  were  there- 
fore taken  from  the  Canada  shore.  The  only  descent  to 
the  water  was  by  "the  Indian  Ladder,"  thus  perilous  enough 
to  deter  the  timorous  from  its  trial.  "Table  Rock,"  which 
is  so  noticeable  a  feature  in  Vanderlyn's  views,  was  then 
unmutilated  by  the  wear  of  the  elements,  and  the  gunpow- 
der experiments  which  have  at  length  destroyed  it.  Nature 
had  then  no  divided  empire  with  art,  for  save  an  occasional 
clearing,  and  a  farm  house  or  log  cabin  here  and  there, 
Niagara  doubtless  appeared  very  much  as  it  did  when 
Father  de  Smet,  in  16..,  stood  upon  its  banks,  and  the 
glories  and  magnificence  of  the  scene  were  revealed  to  the 
first  intelligent  European  to  whom  they  were  revealed. 

The  companion  engravings  afterwards  given  as  the 
fruits  of  this  tour  by  Mr.  Vanderlyn,  were  a  "General 
View,"  and  a  "View  of  the  Great  Fall."  The  first  was 
taken  three  fourths  of  a  mile  below  the  cataract  near  the 
Indian  Ladder,  which  is  directly  opposite  "the  American 
Fall."  From  the  semi-circular  sweep  of  the  shelf,  this 
General  View  gives  a  surpassing  idea  of  the  magnitude  and 


TO   NIAGARA   FALLS   IN   1802.  169 

proportions  of   Niagara.     The   sketch   for  the   Great,   or 
Horse  Shoe  Fall,  was  taken  from  Table  Rock. 

A  day  or  two  elapsed  before  the  artist  employed  his 
pencil.  He  said  it  required  that  time  at  least  to  give  him 
any  idea  of  the  proportion  of  the  elements  of  the  scene. 
The  absence  of  grand  scenery,  of  towering  rocks  or  moun- 
tain heights  as  standards  of  comparison,  rendered  it  im- 
possible at  first  to  seize  an  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  the 
scene.  He  said  that  in  truth  he  was  disappointed — a  feeling 
which  is  confirmed  by  most  who  see  Niagara  at  first,  the 
reality  not  coming  up  to  the  imagination  all  indulge.  Added 
to  this,  the  tremor  of  the  rocks,  and  the  roar  and  motion 
of  the  mighty  waters  had  a  confusing  effect,  distracting, 
dizzying  and  bewildering,  for  a  time.  The  man  overcame 
the  artist.  He  forgot  his  errand;  sitting  several  hours  as 
if  under  a  spell,  lost  to  himself,  taking  in  no  distinct  idea  of 
the  scene,  and  only  conscious  of  an  arena  of  overwhelming 
grandeur  and  power  in  full  and  turbulent  vigour. 

The  narrative  ends  abruptly,  nor  have  we  any  further 
record  of  the  sojourn  at  the  Falls,  or  the  return  journey. 
If  Mr.  Vanderlyn  ever  dictated  it,  it  was  perhaps  destroyed 
in  the  fire  referred  to. 

The  reader  will  have  noted  a  few  errors  in  the  account 
of  the  journey.  The  "Genesee  Flats"  should  no  doubt  read 
"German  Flats."  According  to  credible  testimony  it  was 
not  Simeon  DeWitt,  but  a  subordinate  in  his  department, 
who  is  responsible  for  the  classic  names  of  places  through- 
out central  New  York.  The  drunken  Indian  referred  to 
as  an  Onondaga,  and  again  as  an  Oneida,  may  have  been 
either.  The  Thomas  Morris  met  at  Canandaigua  was  no 
doubt  the  son  of  Robert  Morris,  the  financier  of  the  Revo- 
lution, whose  land  interests  in  western  New  York  were  to 
some  extent  looked  after  by  Thomas.  Father  de  Smet  was 
never  at  Niagara,  so  far  as  we  know,  and  was  of  the 


170  JOHN    VANDERLYN'S    VISIT 

nineteenth,  not  the  seventeenth  century;  the  allusion  is 
undoubtedly  to  Father  Hennepin,  in  1678. 

On  his  return  from  Niagara  to  Kingston  Vanderlyn 
evidently  applied  himself  to  his  several  paintings  of  the 
Falls,  as  already  noted.  He  returned  to  Europe  in  1803, 
published  his  famous  companion  studies  of  Niagara  in 
London  in  1804;  and  after  a  sojourn  in  Paris,  where  he 
painted  a  portrait  of  Washington  Irving,  settled  in  Rome, 
where  he  did  his  most  notable  work.  Living  in  a  house 
that  had  been  Salvator  Rosa's,  he  painted  his  famous 
picture,  "Marius  amid  the  Ruins  of  Carthage."  It  was 
exhibited  at  the  Louvre  in  1808,  where  it  received  a  gold 
medal  offered  by  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  in  a  competition 
shared  in  by  twelve  hundred  artists.  It  is  significant  of  the 
artist's  varied  fortunes  that  this  medal  was  twice  pawned 
for  the  necessities  of  life,  and  was  finally  redeemed  and 
preserved  by  members  of  the  family  of  Bishop  Kip,  in  San 
Francisco,  who  at  last  accounts  were  the  owners  of  the 
"Marius." 

After  two  years  in  Rome,  Vanderlyn  again  returned  to 
Paris,  where  he  worked,  with  splendid  results,  until  1815. 
Besides  painting  many  portraits,  and  copies  of  great  works 
of  Raphael,  Titian  and  Correggio  in  the  Louvre,  he  painted 
his  original  ''Ariadne  of  Naxos,"  afterwards  purchased  by 
Durand  and  engraved  by  him  "in  one  of  the  best  plates  ever 
produced  in  America."  When,  some  years  later,  the 
"Ariadne"  was  exhibited  in  America,  it  aroused  a  no  small 
storm  of  protest  in  certain  quarters,  simply  because  it  was 
a  nude  study,  something  the  American  public  has  been 
curiously  slow  to  learn  to  look  upon  with  proper  vision. 

It  was  during  this  sojourn  in  Paris  that  Vanderlyn 
befriended  Aaron  Burr,  who  after  his  duel  with  Hamilton 
found  it  advisable  for  a  time  to  live  abroad.  In  Europe  he 


TO   NIAGARA   FALLS  IN   1802.  171 

was  shunned  by  Americans,  but  Vanderlyn  remained  true 
to  his  former  benefactor. 

Returning  to  America,  the  artist  entered  upon  a  series 
of  calamitous  and  disappointing  years.  Although  some 
portrait  commissions  came  to  him,  there  was  on  the  whole 
but  little  demand  for  his  services.  He  missed  the  apprecia- 
tive art  "atmosphere"  of  Europe,  and  as  one  project  after 
another  miscarried,  his  nature  changed  and  he  became 
morose  and  resentful.  He  had  dreamed  of  founding  in 
America  a  National  Gallery  of  Art,  but  failed  to  enlist 
funds  or  even  kindly  interest.  Although  his  sitters  for 
portraits  included  many  of  the  great  men  of  the  day — 
Madison,  Monroe,  Calhoun,  Clinton,  Jackson,  Randolph 
and  others — he  claimed  that  the  rivalry  of  Stuart  and 
Trumbull  deprived  him  of  a  just  recognition.  He  turned 
his  talents  to  panorama  painting,  secured  a  concession  from 
the  Corporation  of  New  York  for  a  building,  and  in  the 
rear  of  the  present  City  Hall,  erected  the  New  York 
Rotunda,  where  for  some  dozen  years  were  exhibited  very 
excellent  panoramas,  largely  his  own  work,  as  well  as 
various  of  his  smaller  canvases.  The  financial  outcome 
of  this  enterprise  was  disastrous;  in  1829  the  city  refused 
to  renew  his  lease,  and  deeply  in  debt,  he  turned  again  to 
portrait  painting.  So  embittered  was  he  by  his  experiences 
that  some  years  later,  when  elected  to  membership  in  the 
Academy  of  Design,  he  refused  to  accept  the  honor. 

Among  his  constant  friends  were  Joseph  Allston  and 
Gulien  C.  Verplanck,  through  whose  efforts,  in  1832,  he 
was  commissioned  by  Congress  to  paint  a  full-length  por- 
trait of  Washington,  for  the  House  of  Representatives. 
This  work,  when  completed,  gave  such  satisfaction  that  the 
Government  paid  him  $2500,  instead  of  the  $1000  originally 
stipulated.  In  1837  he  was  commissioned  to  paint,  for 


172  JOHN   VANDERLYN'S   VISIT 

$12,000,  one  of  the  panels  for  the  rotunda  in  the  Capitol. 
He  gladly  accepted  the  commission,  chose  for  his  subject, 
"The  Landing  of  Columbus,"  and  went  to  Paris  to  execute 
the  work.  But  age  and  disappointment  had  sapped  his 
powers.  The  work  was  mostly  painted  by  clever  French 
artists  employed  by  Vanderlyn.  The  composition  is  said 
to  have  been  his,  but  the  completed  picture  was  a  great 
disappointment  to  all  capable  judges  of  art,  and  detracted 
rather  than  added  to  Vanderlyn's  reputation.  Before  being 
placed  in  the  Capitol  it  was  exhibited  throughout  the  East; 
and  it  may  be  noted  that  it  is  the  original  from  which  was 
engraved  the  plate  long  used  by  the  Treasury  Department 
on  the  back  of  the  five-dollar  bills  of  the  United  States 
currency. 

In  his  youth  some  of  Vanderlyn's  successful  attempts 
were  in  the  way  of  historical  compositions,  among  others, 
"The  Death  of  Jane  McCrea";  but  in  later  life  he  made  no 
attempt  in  this  field.  One  of  his  latest  portraits  was  of 
President  Taylor,  now  in  the  Corcoran  gallery,  in  Wash- 
ington. His  portraits  of  Burr  and  R.  R.  Livingston  are 
owned  by  the  New  York  Historical  Society.  His  "Ariadne" 
is  owned  by  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  Fine  Arts. 
Several  of  his  canvases,  among  them  the  "Niagaras"  pre- 
viously noted,  and  a  number  of  excellent  portraits,  are 
preserved  in  Kingston. 

John  Vanderlyn's  end  was  a  touching  one.  I  quote  from 
a  sketch  of  him  printed  in  the  New  York  Evening  Post, 
July  11,  1903: 

"One  morning  in  September,  1852,  he  landed  from  a 
Hudson  river  steamboat  in  a  feeble  condition,  and  set  out 
to  walk  to  Kingston,  two  and  a  half  miles  distant.  Fatigue 
soon  overcame  him,  and  he  was  found  sitting  by  the  road- 
side by  a  friend  from  whom  he  begged  a  shilling  for  the 


TO   NIAGARA   FALLS  IN   1802.  173 

transportation  of  his  trunk,  adding  that  he  was  sick  and 
penniless.  He  secured  a  small  back  room  in  the  village, 
and  the  friend  spoken  of  went  quietly  about  among  a  few 
of  his  acquaintances  with  a  subscription  list  for  his  main- 
tenance. Funds  for  the  purpose  were  promptly  pledged, 
but  they  were  never  needed.  A  few  mornings  after  his 
arrival  Vanderlyn  was  found  dead  in  bed.  .  .  .  He 
rests  now  in  the  old  Wiltwyck  cemetery  in  Kingston,  with 
neither  stone  nor  mound  to  mark  his  grave." 

The  same  capable  biographer  sums  up  his  artistic  merits 
and  defects  as  "those  of  a  painter  trained  in  the  school  of 
David — splendid  draughtsmanship  and  skill  in  composition 
marred  by  frequent  want  of  feeling  for  color."  Although 
his  range  of  subject  was  wide,  his  production  was  limited, 
and  the  only  canvases  I  have  learned  of,  from  his  brush, 
which  depict  American  scenery,  are  the  early  pictures  I 
have  described  of  Niagara  Falls,  painted  while  yet  the 
world's  only  pictorial  acquaintance  with  the  great  cataract 
was  through  the  inadequate  sketches  of  early  travelers,  and 
one  or  two  worthy  works  by  Europeans.  But  the  pioneer 
American  artist  of  Niagara  is  John  Vanderlyn. 


THE  NIAGARA  IN  SCIENCE 


T  N  no  field  of  literature  regarding  the  Niagara  region  do 
we  arrive  at  more  definite  and  gratifying  results  than  in 
science.  Our  poetry  may  be  uninspired,  our  part  in  fiction 
dubious,  our  art  in  large  measure  negligible;  but  in  science 
at  any  rate  Niagara  stands  for  something  definite — some- 
thing splendid  and  fruitful. 

Without  attempting  a  scientific  treatise  I  propose  to 
bring  together  sundry  available  facts  which  will  show  what 
Niagara  represents,  or  what  has  been  accomplished  by  its 
aid,  in  the  various  branches  of  physics  and  of  natural  his- 
tory ;  with  something  of  its  associations  with  distinguished 
scientists. 

The  first  men  to  visit  the  Falls,  in  anything  like  a 
scientific  spirit,  were  Canadian  officers  who  came  to  Niagara 
in  May,  1721.  Before  that  date  the  white  visitors  had 
included  missionary  priests,  soldiers  and  traders;  and 
although  the  latter  at  any  rate  would  no  doubt  contemplate 
the  place  with  a  practical  eye,  and  objurgate  the  interruption 
to  navigation,  yet  their  scientific  attainments  did  not  go 
beyond  some  slight  devices  for  ameliorating  the  toil  of  the 
portage.  But  in  the  spring  of  1721,  there  came  to  the  Niagara 
men  of  another  stamp:  Charles  Le  Moyne,  Baron  de 
Longueuil,  lieutenant  governor  of  Montreal ;  with  him  the 
Marquis  de  Cavagnal,  son  of  the  Governor-General  of 
Canada,  Captain  de  Senneville,  M.  de  Laubinois,  commissary 
of  ordnance,  Ensign  de  la  Chauvignerie  the  interpreter,  De 
Noyan,  commandant  at  Frontenac,  and  others,  with  a 

175 


176  THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE. 

numerous  train  of  soldiers  and  servants.  The  main  object 
of  the  visit  was  to  treat  with  the  Senecas;  an  incidental 
object  was  to  measure  the  Falls.  There  is  no  mention  of 
their  having  been  measured,  up  to  this  time.  An  unofficial 
report  says  that  the  French  officers  used  a  cod-line  and  a 
stone  of  half  a  hundred  weight,  and  they  found  the  perpen- 
dicular height  "vingt  et  six  bras" — that  is,  twenty-six 
fathoms,  or  156  feet.  This  first  measurement  was  probably 
taken  from  what  we  know  as  "Prospect  Point,"  where  the 
height  today  is  not  far  from  what  it  was  found  to  be  in  1721. 

The  Rev.  Father  Bonnecamp,  with  De  Celeron's  expe- 
dition, at  Niagara  in  1749,  reports  its  height  to  be  "133  feet, 
according  to  my  measurement,  which  I  believe  to  be  exact." 

Peter  Kalm,  the  first  professional  naturalist  to  write  of 
Niagara,  reported  in  1750  that  "those  who  have  measur'd  it 
with  mathematical  instruments  find  the  perpendicular  fall 
of  the  water  to  be  exactly  137  feet.  Mons.  Morandrier,  the 
King's  engineer  in  Canada,  assured  me,  and  gave  it  to  me 
also  under  his  hand,  that  137  feet  was  precisely  the  height 
of  it" ;  but  he  adds,  that  those  who  have  tried  to  measure  it 
with  a  line,  "find  it  sometimes  140,  sometimes  150  feet,  and 
sometimes  more." 

Andrew  Ellicott,  brother  of  Joseph,  who  was  the  "Father 
of  Buffalo,"  was  a  distinguished  civil  engineer,  a  man  of 
scientific  habit  of  thought,  and  the  first  American  surveyor 
to  measure  the  Falls.  He  found  "the  perpendicular  pitch 
150  feet,"  to  which  he  added  58  feet  for  the  descent  in  the 
upper  rapids,  and  65  feet  for  the  lower  rapids,  a  total 
descent  of  273  feet  "in  the  distance  of  about  seven  miles  and 
a  half." 


Andrew  Ellicott's  description  is  really  one  of  the  land- 
mark-documents in  the  history  of  the  region.    It  is  not  long, 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE.  177 

but  compact  with  precise  data.  It  was  widely  reprinted,  and 
served  to  make  general  a  new  standard  of  information 
regarding  physical  phenomena  at  Niagara.  He  noted  the 
formation  of  clouds,  from  the  ascending  spray;  and  the 
striking  effect  of  the  water  "puffed  up  in  spherical  figures, 
nearly  as  large  as  common  cocks  of  hay;  they  burst  at  the 
top  and  project  a  column  of  spray  to  a  prodigious  height; 
they  then  subside,  and  are  succeeded  by  others,  which  burst 
in  like  manner." 

This  interesting  phenomenon  has  been  commented  on  by 
many  writers  from  Ellicott's  day  to  this ;  the  accepted  expla- 
nation being  that  air  carried  down  by  the  mass  of  falling 
water  is  at  first  compressed,  then,  as  the  pressure  is  lessened, 
expands  and  forces  itself  upwards,  producing  the  "haycock, ' 
"cone"  or  "geyser"  effect  as  it  bursts  through  the  water  and 
escapes.  One  of  the  best  treatises  on  this  subject,  entitled 
"The  Upward  Jets  at  Niagara,"  by  W.  H.  Barlow  (F.  R.  S., 
etc.),  is  a  paper  read  before  a  meeting  of  the  British 
Association  ;  it  appears  in  the  publications  of  that  body,  and 
also  in  the  Journal  of  the  Franklin  Institute,  Philadelphia, 
1877.  The  author,  who  was  one  of  the  judges  at  the  Centen- 
nial Exposition,  visited  the  Falls  in  1876. 


Initial  curiosity  as  to  the  height  of  the  Falls  being  satis- 
fied, scientific  thought  was  more  and  more  concerned  with 
the  history  of  Niagara  and  its  gorge.  In  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury the  science  of  geology  did  not  exist,  in  the  modern 
comprehension  of  the  term ;  yet  very  early  men  were  specu- 
lating and  announcing  theories  as  to  the  formati  n  of  the 
gorge. 

One  of  our  earliest  writers  on  the  scientific  aspects  of 
Niagara  was  Dr.  Benjamin  Smith  Barton  of  Philadelphia. 
Among  the  papers  which  he  contributed  to  the  Proceedings 


178  THE  NIAGARA  IN  SCIENCE. 

of  the  American  Philosophical  Society  was  one  entitled 
"Notes  on  the  Falls  of  Niagara,"  written  (but  not  pub- 
lished) in  1799.  Ten  years  before  that  he  had  communicated 
to  the  society  "An  account  of  an  earthy  substance 
found  near  the  Falls  of  Niagara  and  vulgarly  called 
the  Spray  of  the  Falls,  together  with  some  remarks  on 
the  Falls,"  by  Robert  McCauslin,  M.  D.  Dr.  McCauslin 
had  then  resided  at  Niagara  for  nine  years,  and  as  early  as 
1781  had  measured  the  height  of  the  cataract,  with  the  aid 
of  "the  acting  engineer,"  perhaps  of  Fort  Niagara.  He 
reported  the  American  fall  at  143  feet,  the  Canadian  at  163. 
In  view  of  the  early  date  and  the  thorough  acquaintance 
with  the  region  which  Dr.  McCauslin  had,  it  is  well  to  quote 
from  his  remarks  on  the  recession  of  the  Falls : 

"This  retrocession  of  the  Fall  does  not  by  any  means  go 
on  so  quickly  as  some  have  imagined.  During  nine  years 
that  I  have  remained  at  Niagara,  very  few  pieces  of  rock 
have  fallen  down  which  were  large  enough  to  make  any 
sensible  alteration  in  the  brink;  and  in  the  space  of  two 
years  I  could  not  perceive,  by  a  pretty  accurate  measure- 
ment, that  the  northeast  brink  had  in  the  least  receded.  If 
we  adopt  the  opinion  of  the  Falls  having  retired  six  miles, 
and  if  we  suppose  the  world  to  be  5700  years  old,  this  will 
give  above  66j^  inches  for  a  year,  or  i62/$  yards  for  nine 
years,  which  I  venture  to  say  has  not  been  the  case  since 
1774.  But  if  we  accede  to  the  opinion  of  some  modern 
philosophers  and  suppose  that  America  has  emerged  much 
later  than  other  parts  of  the  world,  it  will  necessarily  follow 
that  this  retrograde  motion  of  the  Falls  must  have  been 
quicker,  which  is  a  supposition  still  less  consonant  to  the 
observations  of  late  years." 

In  New  York — then  the  seat  of  Government — in  the 
winter  of  1790,  Andrew  Ellicott  told  of  Niagara  to  his 
friend  William  Maclay,  one  of  the  United  States  Senators 
from  Pennsylvania.  Senator  Maclay  considered  what  had 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE.  179 

been  told  him,  and  in  his  journal,  February  i,  1790,  wrote 
as  follows : 

"Mr.  Ellicott's  accounts  of  Niagara  Falls  are  amazing 
indeed.  I  communicated  to  him  my  scheme  of  an  attempt 
to  account  for  the  age  of  the  world,  or  at  least  to  fix  the 
period  when  the  water  began  to  cut  the  ledge  of  rock  over 
which  it  falls.  The  distance  from  the  present  pitch  to 
where  the  Falls  originally  were,  is  now  seven  miles.  For 
this  space  a  tremendous  channel  is  cut  in  a  solid  limestone 
rock,  in  all  parts  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  deep,  but  near 
two  hundred  and  fifty  at  the  mouth  or  part  where  the 
attrition  began.  People  who  have  known  the  place  since 
Sir  William  Johnson  took  possession  of  it,  about  thirty 
years  ago,  gave  out  that  there  is  an  attrition  of  twenty  feet 
in  that  time.  Now  if  20  feet  equals  30  years,  then  7  miles 
or  36,960  feet  equals  55,440  years !" 

To  most  modern  readers  the  deductions  of  McCauslin  and 
Maclay  would  seem  to  be  harmless  enough.  Yet  the  Chris- 
tian world  of  that  day  was  not  able  to  listen  to  anything 
which  opened  the  way  to  doubt  of  the  then  accepted  inter- 
pretation of  Scriptural  statements.  When  Dr.  McCauslin 
wrote,  and  for  many  years  after,  no  man  could  declare  that 
the  rocks  at  Niagara  showed  the  earth  to  be  of  greater  age 
than  the  literal  reading  of  Genesis  made  out,  and  maintain 
his  integrity  as  a  Christian  or  even  a  believer  in  the  Chris- 
tian's God.  Half  a  century  after  McCauslin  Sir  Charles 
Lyell  gave  to  the  geological  problems  at  Niagara  the  most 
intelligent  study  thay  had,  up  to  that  time,  received.  Yet  a 
large  part  of  the  world  was  still  incapable  of  accepting  his 
conclusions,  which  pointed  to  the  world's  great  age.  Dr. 
J.  L.  Comstock,  a  prolific  author  on  natural  history  topics, 
in  his  "Outlines  of  Geology"  (3d  ed.  New  York,  1837) 
reviews  Lyell's  earlier  theories  at  length,  and  sums  up  as 
follows : 


180  THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE. 

"Suppose  the  cataract  of  Niagara  now  at  the  outlet  of 
Lake  Erie  and  moving  into  it  at  the  rate  of  50  yards  in  40 
years,  or  a  little  more  than  a  yard  per  year,  we  would 
inquire  of  Mr.  Lyell  how  long  a  period  would  be  consumed 
in  draining  it  to  the  bottom,  and  whether  the  escape  of  its 
waters  thus  sudden  'would  cause  a  tremendous  deluge,'  as 
he  asserts.  The  title  of  Mr.  Lyell's  book  being  'An  attempt 
to  explain  the  former  changes  of  the  Earth's  surface,  by 
reference  to  causes  now  in  action/  is  itself  an  attack  on  the 
sacred  Scriptures,  but  we  are  happy  to  believe  that  Christi- 
anity is  in  little  danger  from  his  arguments." 

The  Niagara  Falls  have  been  used  both  to  prove,  and  to 
disprove,  the  Biblical  account  of  the  Deluge.  In  1837  George 
Fairholme  published  in  London  a  substantial  volume  en- 
titled :  "New  and  conclusive  physical  demonstrations,  both 
of  the  fact  and  period  of  the  Mosaic  Deluge,  and  of  its 
having  been  the  only  event  of  the  kind  that  has  ever  occurred 
upon  the  earth."  As  he  construed  the  Scriptural  testimony, 
he  found  that  the  Deluge  occurred  some  4000  years  ago; 
whereupon,  with  all  possible  ingenuity,  he  interprets  all 
geological  data  so  as  to  harmonize  with  his  theory.  As  a 
result,  all  his  calculations  arrive  at  conclusions  exactly 
corresponding  with  the  Mosaic  chronology.  Although  he 
had  never  seen  the  Falls  of  Niagara  he  had  at  hand  descrip- 
tions of  them  by  several  travelers,  and  these  were  adequate 
for  his  purpose.  He  contemplated  the  seven  miles  of  gorge 
cut  by  the  river  from  Queenston  to  the  cataract,  and  finds 
"distinct  evidences"  that  the  recession  of  the  falls  has 
occupied  less  than  5,000  years.  He  devotes  many  pages  to 
his  argument.  "As  the  operation  of  Niagara  began,"  he 
says,  "at  Queenston,  on  that  same  day  when  the  shallow 
basin  of  Lake  Erie  first  overflowed  its  margin,  we  are  thus 
led,  by  all  the  laws  of  inductive  reasoning,  to  the  origin  of 
the  whole  American  continent,  as  a  dry  land,  at  a  period 


THE  NIAGARA   IN   SCIENCE.  181 

not  more  remote  than  about  four  or  five  thousand  years." 
And  again,  speaking  of  the  erosion  produced  by  streams,  he 
observes:  "Their  ceaseless  friction  affords  us  the  key  to 
the  fact  of  a  commencement;  and  in  the  remarkable  case 
of  Niagara,  this  the  greatest  of  all  cataracts,  seems  to  have 
been  purposely  appointed,  to  confound  the  reasoning  of  the 
skeptic,  and  to  open  a  more  secret  cabinet,  distinctly  disclos- 
ing to  us  the  very  date  of  this  event." 

Even  in  Fairholme's  day  the  science  of  geology  had  made 
such  progress  that  fair-minded  men,  with  a  knowledge  of 
the  subject,  were  unable  to  reconcile  Biblical  chronology 
with  the  testimony  of  the  rocks.  The  conflict  that  arose 
between  the  students  of  nature  and  the  adherents  of  theolog- 
ical teaching  was  one  of  the  bitterest  phases  in  the  long 
conflict  between  theology  and  science.  When  geologists 
began  to  assert  that  the  rocks  proved  that  the  earth  was 
more  than  five  or  six  thousand  years  old,  the  strict  adher- 
ents to  the  Book  of  Genesis  called  them  infidels,  and  atheists. 
Nor  is  this  strife  by  any  means  a  matter  of  the  remote  past. 
Many  years  after  Fairholme  proved  it  all — presumably  to 
his  own  convincement — another  Englishman  felt  called  upon 
to  prove  it  all  over  again.  This  was  Philip  Henry  Gosse, 
whose  "Omphalos,"  published  in  London  as  late  as  1857, 
seeks  to  reestablish  the  tottering  structure  of  Mosaic 
chronology.  He  developed  a  theory  originally  put  forward 
by  Granville  Penn,  and  styled  "prochronism."  "In  accord- 
ance with  this,"  says  Andrew  D.  White,  summarizing  the 
views  of  Gosse  (in  his  "Warfare  of  Science  with  Theol- 

ogy"), 

"all  things  were  created  by  the  Almighty  hand  literally 
within  the  six  days,  each  made  up  of  'the  evening  and  the 
morning/  and  each  great  branch  of  creation  was  brought 
into  existence  in  an  instant.  Accepting  a  declaration  of  Dr. 


182  THE   NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE. 

Ure,  that  'neither  reason  nor  revelation  will  justify  us  in 
extending  the  origin  of  the  material  system  beyond  six 
thousand  years  from  our  own  days,'  Gosse  held  that  all 
evidences  of  convulsive  changes  and  long  epochs  in  strata, 
rocks,  minerals  and  fossils  are  simply  'appearances' — only 
that  and  nothing  more.  Among  these  mere  'appearances,' 
all  created  simultaneously,  were  the  glacial  furrows  and 
scratches  on  rocks,  the  marks  of  retreat  of  rocky  masses, 
as  at  Niagara" — 

all  these  and  many  more  manifestations  of  great  time,  we 
are  asked  to  believe  came  into  being  in  an  instant;  asked 
to  believe,  as  Dr.  White  puts  it,  "that  Jehovah  tilted  and 
twisted  the  strata,  scattered  the  fossils  through  them, 
scratched  the  glacial  furrows  upon  them,  spread  over  them 
the  marks  of  erosion  by  water,  and  set  Niagara  pouring — 
all  in  an  instant — thus  mystifying  the  world  'for  some  in- 
scrutable purpose,  but  for  His  own  glory.' " 

William  Priest,  a  musician  whose  volume  of  American 
travels  was  published  in  London  in  1802,  did  not  visit  the 
Niagara  region,  but  has  the  following  interesting  allusion : 

"An  American  writer  has  been  endeavoring  to  investigate 
the  age  of  the  world,  from  the  Falls  of  Niagara !  Accord- 
ing to  his  calculation  (which,  by  the  way,  is  not  a  little 
curious)  it  is  36,960  years  since  the  first  rain  fell  upon  the 
face  of  the  earth." 

I  have  not  been  able  to  identify  this  "American  writer." 
From  Andrew  Ellicott's  day  to  this  the  geologists  have 
been  studying  Niagara  and  figuring  out  its  age,  with  amaz- 
ing diversity  of  result.  The  literature  of  Niagara  geology 
is  vast — probably  exceeded  by  that  of  no  phase  of  our  sub- 
ject except  possibly  the  War  of  1812.  No  one  who  devotes 
himself  to  the  science  of  geology  can  omit  Niagara  from  his 
studies,  and  anything  like  an  exhaustive  mention  of  those 
who  have  written  on  the  subject  is  here  out  of  the  question. 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE.  183 

In  his  "Partial  Bibliography  of  the  Geology  of  the  Niagara," 
etc.,  A.  W.  Grabau  (1901)  gives  the  names  of  61  authors 
who  have  written  194  books  or  papers  on  the  subject.  Gra- 
bau's  list  is  but  a  beginning  and  might  be  greatly  extended. 
He  takes  note  only  of  scientists  of  distinction.  To  the 
student  of  the  subject  in  its  historical  aspect  many  other 
writers,  especially  the  earlier  ones,  must  be  taken  note  of, 
for  we  trace  through  them  the  gradual  growth  of  knowledge 
and  adjustment  of  theories.  The  problems  of  the  "age"  of 
the  cataract,  and  of  its  rate  of  recession,  have  always  been 
of  great  interest  because  their  solution  would  establish  a 
relation  between  the  periods  of  geologic  time  and  the  cen- 
turies of  human  chronology. 

Soon  after  Andrew  Ellicott  had  made  his  measurements 
of  Niagara,  came  the  French  savant  C.  F.  Volney.  Our 
grandparents  knew  Volney's  "Ruins"  as  a  classic.  His 
"Views"  contains  a  long  account  of  his  investigations  at 
Niagara,  which  he  visited  in  1796 — a  memorable  year,  in 
which  Great  Britain  relinquished  her  hold  on  the  "Amer- 
ican" side  of  the  Niagara  and  the  Lakes.  DeWitt  Clinton 
was  studying  the  rocks  at  Niagara  in  1810,  and  in  1822, 
under  the  pseudonym  of  "Hibernicus,"  wrote  at  length  of 
the  geology  of  the  region  in  his  "Letters  on  the  Natural  His- 
tory and  Internal  Resources  of  the  State  of  New  York."  j 
He  called  the  cataract  "a  great  manufactory  of  clouds  and  j 
rainbows,"  and  adds :  "It  serves  as  a  barometer  as  far  as 
Buffalo.  If  the  spray  spreads  from  the  north  it  is  a  sign  of 
a  northerly  wind ;  a  southeast  wind  indicates  rain." 

"Amos  Eaton  wrote  prior  to  1825.  Robert  Bakewell,  an 
eminent  Englishman,  studied  the  Niagara  problem  as  early 
as  1829,  and  estimated  the  age  of  the  Falls — that  is,  the 
time  of  recession  from  the  escarpment  at  Lewiston — to  be 
12,000  years.  Lyell,  in  1841,  visited  Niagara,  wrote  delight- 


184  THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE. 

fully  of  it,  and  decided  that  its  age  was  about  35,000  years. 
Compare  this  with  the  55,440  years  of  Maclay  and  Ellicott, 
and  the  "less  than  5,000  years"  of  Fairholme! 

In  1831  G.  W.  Feather stonhaugh  made  certain  general 
observations  on  the  ancient  drainage  of  North  America,  and 
applied  the  operating  principle  to  the  origin  of  the  cataract 
of  Niagara.  He  especially  controverted  Mr.  James  Geddes, 
a  distinguished  engineer,  who  in  a  paper  in  the  Proceedings 
of  the  Albany  Institute,  had  taken  the  ground  that  the 
Niagara  had  not  cut  its  gorge  back  from  the  Queenston 
ridge  to  its  present  position,  but  that  the  river  had  found 
the  ravine  already  existing,  and  flowed  through  it. 

A  truly  great  name  in  Niagara  study  is  that  of  James 
Hall,  for  many  years  New  York  State  Geologist.  It  was 
he  who  in  1842  set  the  first  stone  monuments  by  which  the 
recession  of  the  Falls  has  ever  since  been  measured. 
Professor  Hall's  work  of  1842,  and  subsequent  surveys, 
supplied  exact  data,  so  that  there  is  little  guess-work  about 
the  retreat  of  the  Falls  in  the  last  seventy  years.  The  rate 
of  recession  has  been  shown  to  vary  remarkably,  the  Amer- 
ican fall,  from  1842  to  1875,  averaged  .74  of  a  foot  a  year; 
from  1875  to  1886,  only  .11  of  a  foot;  from  1886  to  1890 
its  rate  rose  to  1.65  feet,  making  an  average  per  year,  for 
the  period  1842  to  1890,  of  .64  of  a  foot.  The  Horseshoe 
wears  away  much  faster;  from  1886  to  1890  at  the  rate  of 
5.01  feet;  and  for  the  whole  period,  1842  to  1890,  an  aver- 
age of  2.18  feet  per  year. 

Dr.  Julius  Pohlman  of  Buffalo  was  the  first  scientist  to 
base  his  calculations  on  these  known  rates  of  recession.  He 
reasoned  that  a  portion  of  the  gorge  was  pre-glacial  in 
origin,  and  reduced  the  length  of  the  post-glacial  or  reces- 
sion period  to  3,500  years.  Warren  Upham,  taking  the 
same  data  but  reasoning  differently,  made  the  age  of  the 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE.  185 

gorge  "between  5,000  and  10,000  years."  J.  W.  Spencer, 
whose  writings  on  this  subject  are  held  in  esteem,  puts  the 
age  of  the  gorge  at  32,000  years ;  and  F.  B.  Taylor,  also  a 
learned  and  prolific  writer  on  Niagara,  places  the  length  of 
the  recession  period,  tentatively,  at  50,000  years.  Professor 
G.  F.  Wright  makes  elaborate  calculations  and  gets  10,000 
years  as  the  answer ;  and  Professor  C.  H.  Hitchcock  figures 
it  all  out,  with  delightful  precision,  at  18,918  years. 

Never  was  there  a  more  palpable  case  of  the  disagree- 
ment of  doctors.  We  may  as  well  leave  it,  as  A.  W.  Grabau, 
a  thorough  student  of  the  subject,  leaves  it  in  his  valuable 
''Guide  to  the  Geology  and  Paleontology  of  Niagara  Falls 
and  Vicinity"  (Albany,  1901) — that  is,  with  a  few  gener- 
alities : 

"All  such  estimates  are  little  more  than  personal  opinions. 
.  .  .  The  leading  questions  concerning  the  extent  of  the 
pre-glacial  erosion  in  this  region,  and  the  changes  in 
volume  of  water  during  the  lifetime  of  the  Niagara,  which 
are  of  such  vital  importance  in  the  solution  of  this  problem, 
are  by  no  means  satisfactorily  answered.  Nor  can  we 
assume  that  we  are  familiar  with  all  the  factors  which  enter 
into  the  equation.  There  may  be  still  undiscovered  causes 
which  may  have  operated  to  lengthen  or  shorten  the  life- 
time of  this  great  river,  just  as  there  may  be,  and  probably 
are,  factors  which  make  any  estimates  of  the  future  history 
of  the  river  and  cataract  little  more  than  a  mere  speculation. 
We  may  perhaps  say  that  our  present  knowledge  leads  us 
to  believe  that  the  age  of  the  cataract  is  probably  not  less 
than  10,000  nor  more  than  50,000  years." 

Of  prime  interest  are  Robert  BakewelFs  "Observations 
on  the  Wl  irlpool  and  on  the  Rapids  below  the  Falls  of 
Niagara"  (Am.  Jour.  Sci.  and  Arts,  New  Haven,  1847), 
with  curious  illustrations.  Mr.  Bakewell,  then  a  resident  of 
England,  was  at  Niagara  for  six  days  in  1829.  In  1846, 
after  he  had  made  his  home  in  the  United  States,  he  spent 


186  THE  NIAGARA   IN   SCIENCE. 

eight  days  more  at  the  Falls,  studying  the  geology  and 
physical  geography  of  the  place.  The  paper  referred  to 
derives  much  of  its  value  from  the  author's  ability  to  com- 
pare his  own  observations  at  two  intervals  seventeen  years 
apart.  His  son  also  wrote  on  the  same  subject. 

I  have  alluded  to  Professor  James  Hall's  work  of  placing 
markers  in  1842.  In  1837  ne  had  been  appointed  by  Gov- 
ernor Marcy  to  investigate  the  geology  of  the  Fourth  ( N.  Y. 
State)  district,  including  the  Niagara  region.  The  result 
of  his  work,  as  presented  in  his  "Geology  of  New  York, 
Part  IV.,"  etc.  (Albany,  1843),  '1S  perhaps  even  now  the 
most  valuable  single  work  we  have  on  the  geology  of  the 
Niagara  region. 

Sir  Charles  Lyell,  greatest  of  English  geologists,  made  a 
leisurely  visit  at  Niagara  in  1841.  His  studies  of  the  region 
("Travels,"  etc.,  London,  1845)  are  conspicuous  for  their 
thoroughness  and  sagacity,  and  his  descriptions  of  scenery 
and  narrative  of  travels  are  still  entertaining  and  profitable 
reading,  even  for  the  unscientific.  Not  only  in  the  "Travels," 
but  in  other  of  his  writings,  especially  his  "Principles  of 
Geology,"  will  the  student  find  much  relating  to  our  region. 

Other  notable  English  scientists  who  have  written  of  their 
Niagara  experiences  include  Sir  Andrew  C.  Ramsay,  who 
came  in  1859;  John  Tyndall  in  1872;  Thomas  Henry 
Huxley  in  1876.  The  last  named,  with  his  wife,  visited 
Buffalo,  to  attend  the  meeting  of  the  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  Here  they  were  the  guests 
of  Mr.  O.  H.  Marshall,  who  afterwards  visited  them  in 
England.  A  week  was  spent  at  Niagara,  "partly,"  writes 
Professor  Huxley's  biographer,  his  son  Leonard, 

"in  making  holiday,  partly  in  shaping  the  lectures  which 
had  to  be  delivered  at  the  end  of  the  trip.  As  to  the  im- 
pression made  upon  him  by  the  Falls — an  experience  which, 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE.  187 

it  is  generally  presumed,  every  traveler  is  bound  to  record — 
I  may  note  that  after  the  first  disappointment  at  their 
appearance,  inevitable  wherever  the  height  of  a  waterfall 
is  less  than  the  breadth,  he  found  in  them  an  inexhaustible 
charm  and  fascination.  As  in  duty  bound,  he,  with  my 
mother,  completed  his  experiences  by  going  under  the  wall 
of  waters  to  the  Cave  of  the  Winds.  But  of  all  things 
nothing  pleased  him  more  than  to  sit  of  an  evening  by  the 
edge  of  the  river,  and  through  the  roar  of  the  cataract  to 
listen  for  the  under-sound  of  the  beaten  stones  grinding 
together  at  its  foot." 

Professor  Tyndall's  visit,  in  November,  1872,  gave  to 
Niagara  literature  one  of  its  most  delightful  chapters.  The 
reader  is  recommended  to  turn  to  it,  in  the  "Fragments  of 
Science,"  where  he  can  enjoy  the  whole  of  it.  No  aspect  of 
the  scene  escaped  Mr.  Tyndall's  attention.  He  soon  con- 
cluded "that  beauty  is  not  absent  from  the  Horseshoe  Fall, 
but  majesty  is  its  chief  attribute."  With  the  veteran  guide, 
Tom  Conroy,  he  made  his  way  along  the  foot  of  the  Horse- 
shoe Fall,  below  Terrapin  Point,  to  a  point  seldom  visited 
and  only  by  the  active;  the  place  has  since  been  named 
"Tyndall's  Rock."  In  his  record  of  the  experience  he  does 
not  content  himself  with  formal  observations  on  the  force 
of  the  currents  or  the  erosion  of  the  rocks.  Scientist  that 
he  was,  and  accustomed  to  deal  only  with  exact  facts  and 
known  quantities,  he  takes  note  not  only  of  external 
.phenomena,  but  of  a  "certain  sanative  effect"  which  the 
spray  and  thunder  of  Niagara  wrought  on  himself.  "Quick- 
ened by  the  emotions  there  aroused,  the  blood  sped  exult- 
ingly  through  the  arteries,  abolishing  introspection,  clearing 
the  heart  of  all  bitterness,  and  enabling  one  to  think  with 
tolerance,  if  not  with  tenderness,  on  the  most  relentless  and 
unreasonable  foe." 

I  know  of  no  more  significant  utterance  in  all  the  realm 


188  THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE. 

of  Niagara  literature.  Coming  from  a  sentimentalist,  it 
would  scarce  command  our  attention.  Uttered  by  a  Tyndall, 
it  has  the  impressiveness  of  a  new  revelation  of  the  eternal 
and  benignant  gospel  of  nature. 

In  1886  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Science  met  for  the  third  time  in  Buffalo,  thus  gathering 
on  the  banks  of  the  Niagara  America's  foremost  living 
geologists  and  physicists.  As  fruit  of  that  meeting,  or  of  sub- 
sequent studies  then  inspired,  there  are  many  books  and 
countless  papers  in  scientific  journals.  Among  the  more 
prolific  and  authoritative  of  recent  writers  on  Niagara 
geology  I  must  be  content  with  the  mere  mention  of  Herman 
Leroy  Fairchild  ("The  Birth  of  Niagara"),  E.  L.  Garbett, 
G.  K.  Gilbert  of  the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey — author  of 
many  monographs  on  the  subject,  W.  D.  Gunning  ("The 
Past  and  Future  of  Niagara"),  Aug.  S.  Kibbe  ("Report  of 
the  Survey  to  determine  the  Crest  Lines  of  the  Falls  of 
Niagara  in  1900"),  J.  S.  Newberry,  N.  S.  Shaler  ("Aspects 
of  the  Earth"),  J.  W.  Spencer — author  of  many  papers 
relating  to  Niagara  geology  and  kindred  topics,  Warren 
Upham  ("The  Niagara  River  since  the  Ice  Age"),  Alex- 
ander Winchell,  R.  S.  Woodward  ("On  the  Rate  of  Reces- 
sion of  Niagara  Falls"),  and  G.  Frederick  Wright,  among 
whose  numerous  useful  writings  mention  should  be  made 
of  the  "New  Method  of  Estimating  the  Age  of  Niagara 
Falls"  and  "The  Niagara  Gorge  as  a  Geologic  Chron- 
ometer." 

Dr.  John  Bigsby,  in  a  paper  published  in  1824  (Amer. 
Jour.  Sci.  and  Arts}  describes  minerals  and  other  specimens 
found  at  Niagara  Falls  in  June,  1819. 


Nobody  has  measured  the  flow  of  Niagara,  but  many 
engineers  and   scientists  have  computed  it.     One  of  the 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE.  189 

earliest  to  do  so  was  Z.  Allen,  in  co-operation  with  E.  R. 
Blackwell.  In  his  report  of  their  work  ("On  the  Volume  of 
the  Niagara  River,"  etc.,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.  and  Arts,  New 
Haven,  1844),  Mr.  Allen  writes: 

"Whilst  passing  a  few  days  at  the  Falls  of  Niagara  in 
the  summer  of  1841,  it  occurred  to  me  to  make  the  neces- 
sary admeasurements  for  ascertaining  the  quantity  of  water 
precipitated  by  the  grand  cataract.  .  .  .  For  this  pur- 
pose the  services  of  Mr.  E.  R.  Blackwell  of  Black  Rock,  a 
most  skillful  and  accurate  engineer,  were  engaged  by  me." 

There  is  a  full-page  map  (by  Blackwell)  of  a  section  of 
the  Niagara  river  opposite  Black  Rock,  with  thirty-eight 
soundings  extending  in  three  ranges  across  the  river,  with 
localities,  etc.,  indicated.  Mr.  Allen  computed  the  total 
horse-power  of  Niagara  Falls  at  4,533,334. 


An  exceptional  phase  of  Niagara  study  is  Professor 
William  H.  Brewer's  "Earth  Tremors  at  Niagara  Falls." 
(Yale  Sci.  Monthly,  May,  1896.)  It  is  an  account  of 
observations  made  at  Niagara  Falls  through  a  period  of 
forty-five  years.  The  heaviest  vibrations  were  found  to 
be  on  either  side  of  and  near  the  Horseshoe  Fall.  They  dis- 
appeared in  places  in  the  soft  shales  below  the  limestone, 
although  they  were  evident  in  the  harder  limestone  and  sand- 
stones. Passing  down  the  gorge,  the  vibrations  decreased 
in  intensity,  becoming  too  faint  to  be  perceived  between 
the  suspension  bridges,  but  increasing  again  on  nearing  the 
rapids.  The  theory  has  been  promulgated  that  crystals  are 
more  common  in  the  rocks  near  the  Falls  than  elsewhere, 
their  formation  being  promoted  by  the  jar  of  the  cataract ; 
but  Professor  Brewer  found  no  evidence  of  this. 

There  is  probably  no  connection  between  earth  tremors 
at  Niagara  Falls,  and  earthquakes ;  but  Professor  Brewer's 


190  THE   NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE. 

paper  reminds  me  of  a  report  made  by  Dr.  Charles  E.  West 
"On  an  Earthquake  in  Western  New  York,"  Oct.  23,  1857. 
Dr.  West's  report  of  it,  made  at  a  meeting  of  the  American 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  held  in  Balti- 
more in  May,  1858,  says  in  part: 

"It  occurred  in  Buffalo,  at  a  quarter  past  three  o'clock, 
p.  m.,  and  was  violent  compared  with  other  earthquakes  in 
the  Northern  States.  I  was  seated  in  a  chair  with  my 
head  leaning  against  the  mantel  of  the  fireplace  when  the 
shock  occurred,  and  so  great  was  its  violence  as  to  throw 
me  forward  to  my  feet.  ...  A  farmer  living  in 
Aurora,  a  town  sixteen  miles  southeast  of  Buffalo,  was 
digging  potatoes  in  his  field,  at  the  time  of  the  earthquake, 
and  so  powerful  was  the  shock  that  he  instinctively  leaned 
upon  his  hoe-handle,  and  while  in  this  posture  he  observed 
the  dirt  shake  back  and  forth  over  his  hoe,  which  was 
partially  buried  in  the  soil." 

Further  evidence  is  presented  from  Port  Hope,  Ont., 
Lockport,  Buffalo,  Jamestown,  Warren,  Pa.,  Erie,  Pa.,  and 
other  points.  Other  earthquake  tremors  have  been  reported 
— or  imagined — in  this  region,  but  this  one  of  Oct.  23,  1857, 
is  the  only  one  supported  by  credible  testimony.  Dr.  West, 
it  is  unnecessary  to  remind  the  older  residents  of  Buffalo, 
was  the  first  principal  of  the  Buffalo  Female  Seminary,  a 
gentleman  of  wide  repute  for  his  scholarly  attainments  and 
love  of  truth.  It  might  be  shown,  perhaps,  that  some  of  the 
supposed  earthquake  tremors  were  coincident  with  the  fall 
of  great  rock-masses  at  the  cataract,  and  either  caused  the 
fall,  or  were  caused  by  it.  This  was  the  case  on  January  7 
and  8,  1889,  when  the  fall  of  heavy  rock  masses  in  the  cleft 
of  the  Horseshoe  produced  earth  tremors  that  were  felt  for 
some  miles  around. 

In  1804,  Dr.  Benjamin  Smith  Barton,  in  his  Medical  and 
Physical  Journal,  reported  that  an  "earthquake  occurred  at 
the  Falls  of  Niagara,  on  the  26th  of  December,  1796,  about 


THE   NIAGARA   IN   SCIENCE.  191 

six  o'clock  in  the  morning.  It  seemed  to  proceed  from  the 
northwest,  and  did  not  last  more  than  two  seconds.  But  it 
was  sensibly  felt  for  fifty  miles  around  the  Falls."  This 
also,  in  all  probability,  was  due  to  the  fall  of  rock. 


The  sound  of  Niagara — its  roar,  or  if  you  please,  its 
thunder,  or  as  one  poet  prefers  to  put  it,  its  silence — has 
occasioned  much  curious  comment.  The  very  earliest  visit- 
ors had  as  much  to  say  about  the  great  noise,  and  the  dis- 
tance at  which  it  could  be  heard,  as  about  any  visual  aspect 
cf  the  scene.  Niagara  was,  naturally,  discovered  by  the  ear 
before  it  was  by  the  eye;  and  as  we  have  noted,  some  of 
the  early  missionaries  reported  having  heard  it,  without 
going  to  see  it.  The  distance  at  which  its  sound  could  be 
beard  was  always  matter  of  curious  report  and  speculation. 

J.  T.  Trowbridge,  in  that  pleasant  autobiography,  "My 
Own  Story,"  speaks  cf  his  boyhood  in  Lockport,  where,  he 
says,  writing  of  the  Falls,  "often  in  the  still  autumn  weather, 
1  listened  to  their  continuous,  low,  hardly  distinguishable 
rear,  a  sound  that  always  breathed  a  quiet  joy  into  my  soul." 
This  was  in  the  '4o's,  and  the  distance  was  some  eighteen 
miles.  Tom  Moore  the  poet,  in  1804,  claimed  to  have  heard 
the  Falls  at  Buffalo.  This  is  corroborated  by  the  Hon. 
Lewis  F.  Allen,  an  early  resident  of  Buffalo,  who  told  me 
not  many  years  before  his  death  in  1890  that  many  a  time, 
seated  on  the  veranda  of  his  house  on  Niagara  street  near 
Ferry,  in  the  calm  of  a  summer  evening,  he  had  heard  the 
roar  of  the  Falls.  What  with  whistles  and  bells  and  horns, 
the  noise  of  trains  and  electric  cars,  the  din  of  pavement  and 
factory,  the  civic  "shouting  and  tumult,"  all  that  make  up  the 
composite  Voice  of  Cities,  it  has  been  many  a  day  since  the 
cadence  of  Niagara  has  been  audible  in  Buffalo.  But  the 
sound  is  constant  at  the  source ;  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  if 


192  THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE. 

we  would  all  keep  still,  and  the  wind  were  in  the  right 
quarter,  Niagara's  roar  could  again  be  heard,  as  Tom  Moore 
said,  "upon  Erie's  shore." 

In  the  early  years  of  the  long-distance  telephone  it  was 
thought  to  be  a  notable  feat  to  make  the  roar  of  Niagara 
audible  in  New  York  City.  It  is  still  an  impressive  thought 
that  audiences  assembled  in  distant  cities  can,  by  the  aid  of 
well-perfected  instruments,  distinctly  hear  its  deep  music. 

Ole  Bull,  who  came  to  America  in  1843,  soon  saw  the 
Falls.  In  the  autumn  of  1844,  resting  at  Bristol,  R.  I.,  he 
wrote  down  his  "musical  thoughts"  of  Niagara.  His  wife, 
who  is  his  biographer,  says  that  he  had  "spent  many  days  at 
the  Falls  at  different  times,  and  saw  them  in  all  lights — in 
sun  and  storm."  "One  evening  great  forest  fires  added  their 
blaze  and  glare  to  the  silvery  shimmer  of  the  moonlit  rapids, 
and  the  lurid  light  with  the  grand  rush  and  roar  of  the 
waters  made  a  deep  impression  upon  him."  It  was  at 
Niagara  that  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  George  Ticknor 
and  his  family,  with  whom  the  musician  ever  after  main- 
tained a  pleasant  acquaintance  and  friendship. 

The  "Niagara,"  which  he  played  for  the  first  time  in 
New  York  in  the  winter  of  1844,  was  disappointing  to  the 
general  public,  though  favorably  commented  on  by  the  press. 
It  was  of  the  class  of  compositions  which  make  no  appeal  to 
the  unimaginative.  After  it  had  been  explained  to  the  public 
— after  writers  gifted  with  phrases  if  not  with  true  inter- 
pretative insight  had  given  to  the  public  a  tangible  explana- 
tion of  what  they  thought  that  Ole  Bull  thought  he  was 
expressing  in  terms  of  the  violin — then  the  public  pro- 
fessed to  like  it,  and  to  see — or  hear — a  great  deal  of 
exquisite  sentiment  in  it,  pertaining  in  an  emotional  way  to 
the  cataract  of  Niagara.  N.  P.  Willis  was  one  of  those  who 


THE  NIAGARA   IN   SCIENCE.  193 

undertook  to  record  Ole  Bull's  emotions  so  that  others,  less 
gifted,  might  share  them.    Thus  he  wrote,  in  part : 

"We  believe  that  we  have  heard  a  transfusion  into  music 
— not  of  'Niagara,'  which  the  audience  seemed  bona  fide 
to  expect,  but  of  the  pulses  of  a  human  heart  at  Niagara. 
We  had  a  prophetic  boding  of  the  result  of  calling  the 
piece  vaguely  'Niagara,' — the  listener  furnished  with  no 
'argument'  as  a  guide  through  the  wilderness  of  'treatment' 
to  which  the  subject  was  open.  This  mistake  allowed,  how- 
ever, it  must  be  said  that  Ole  Bull  has,  genius-like,  refused 
to  misinterpret  the  voice  within  him — refused  to  play  the 
charlatan,  and  'bring  the  house  down' — as  he  might  well 
have  done  by  any  kind  of  'uttermost,'  from  the  drums  and 
trumpets  of  the  orchestra. 

"The  emotion  at  Niagara  is  all  but  mute.  It  is  a  'small, 
still  voice'  that  replies  within  us  to  the  thunder  of  waters. 
The  musical  mission  of  the  Norwegian  was  to  represent  the 
insensate  element  as  it  was  to  him — to  a  human  soul,  stirred 
in  its  seldom  reached  depths  by  the  call  of  power.  It  was 
the  answer  to  Niagara  that  he  endeavored  to  render  in 
music — not  the  call!" 

Another  of  Ole  Bull's  interpreters,  most  richly  endowed 
with  imagination,  was  Lydia  Maria  Child,  who  in  her  once- 
f amous  "Letters  from  New  York"  wrote  as  follows : 

"You  ask  me  for  my  impressions  of  Ole  Bull's  'Niagara.' 
It  is  like  asking  an  aeolian  harp  to  tell  what  the  great  organ 
of  Freiburg  does.  But  ...  I  will  give  you  the  tones 
as  they  breathed  through  my  soul.  .  .  . 

"I  did  not  know  what  the  composer  intended  to  express. 
I  would  have  avoided  knowing  if  the  information  had  been 
offered;  for  I  wished  to  hear  what  the  music  itself  would 
say  to  me.  And  thus  it  spoke :  The  serenely-beautiful  open- 
ing told  of  a  soul  going  peacefully  into  the  calm,  bright 
atmosphere.  It  passes  along,  listening  to  the  half-audible, 
many-voiced  murmurings  of  the  summer  woods.  Gradu- 
ally, tremulous  vibrations  fill  the  air,  as  of  a  huge  cauldron 


194  THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE. 

seething  in  the  distance.  The  echoing  sounds  rise  and 
swell,  and  finally  roar  and  thunder.  In  the  midst  of  this 
stands  the  soul,  striving  to  utter  its  feelings. 

'Like  to  a  mighty  heart  the  music  seems 
That  yearns  with  melodies  it  cannot  speak.' 

"It  wanders  away  from  the  cataract,  and  again  and 
again  returns  within  sound  of  its  mighty  echoes.  Then 
calmly,  reverentially,  it  passes  away,  listening  to  the  reced- 
ing chorus  of  Nature's  tremendous  drums  and  trombones; 
musing  solemnly  as  it  goes,  on  that  vast  sheet  of  waters, 
rolling  now  as  it  has  rolled,  'long,  long  time  ago.' 

"Grand  as  I  thought  'Niagara'  when  I  first  heard  it,  it 
opened  upon  me  with  increasing  beauty  when  I  heard  it 
repeated.  I  then  observed  many  exquisite  and  graceful 
touches,  which  were  lost  in  the  magnitude  of  the  first  im- 
pression. The  multitudinous  sounds  are  bewildering  in 
their  rich  variety.  .  .  .  There  is  the  pattering  of  water- 
drops,  gurglings,  twitterings,  and  little  gushes  of  song. 
.  .  .  It  reminded  me  of  a  sentence  in  the  'Noctes 
Ambrosianae/  beautifully  descriptive  of  its  prevailing  char- 
acter: 'It  keeps  up  a  bonnie  wild  musical  sough,  like  that 
o'  swarming  bees,  spring-startled  birds,  and  the  voices  of  a 
hundred  streams,  some  wimpling  awa'  ower  the  Elysian 
meadows,  and  ithers  roaring  at  a  distance  frae  the  clefts.' 

"The  sublime  waterfall  is  ever  present  with  its  echoes, 
but  present  in  a  calm,  contemplative  soul.  One  of  the  most 
poetic  minds  I  know,  after  listening  to  this  music,  said  to 
me :  'The  first  time  I  saw  Niagara,  I  came  upon  it  through 
the  woods,  in  the  clear  sunlight  of  a  summer's  morning; 
and  these  tones  are  a  perfect  transcript  of  my  emotions!' 
In  truth,  it  seems  to  me  a  perfect  disembodied  poem ;  a 
most  beautiful  mingling  of  natural  sounds  with  the  reflex 
of  their  impressions  on  a  refined  and  romantic  mind.  This 
serene  grandeur,  this  pervading  beauty,  which  softens  all 
the  greatness,  gave  the  composition  its  greatest  charm  to 
those  who  love  poetic  expression  in  music;  but  it  renders 
it  less  captivating  to  the  public  in  general,  than  they  had 
anticipated.  Had  it  been  called  a  Pastorale  composed 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE.  195 

within  hearing  of  Niagara,  their  preconceived  ideas  would 
have  been  more  in  accordance  with  its  calm,  bright  majesty." 

"Over  everything  stands  its  doemon  or  soul,"  says  Emer- 
son, "and  as  the  form  of  the  thing  is  reflected  to  the  eye,  so 
is  the  soul  of  the  thing  reflected  by  a  melody.  The  sea,  the 
mountain-ridge,  Niagara,  super-exist  in  precantations,  which 
sail  like  odours  in  the  air ;  and  when  any  man  goes  by  with 
ears  sufficiently  fine,  he  overhears  them,  and  endeavors  to 
write  them  down,  without  diluting  or  depraving  them." 

After  all  this,  one  can  but  wish  that  we  had  Ole  Bull's 
own  explanation  of  his  "Niagara"  music. 

The  sound  of  the  cataract  appeals  particularly  to  the  poets 
and  the  scientists,  and  therein,  perhaps,  reveals  their  kin- 
ship. Most  poets  are  not  scientists,  in  the  practical  sense 
of  the  term ;  but  every  true  scientist  is  a  poet,  in  his  appre- 
ciation of  nature's  processes  and  revelations.  Frederick 
Almy  touches  the  matter  with  fine  discernment  in  his  paper 
on  "What  to  See"  at  Niagara  ("The  Niagara  Book") : 

"Mr.  Howells  speaks  in  his  book  of  the  repose  of 
Niagara.  Another  paradox  is  its  silence.  The  sheets  of 
falling  water  are  so  unchanging  to  the  eye  that  the  motion 
seems  no  more  actual  than  when  the  breeze  runs  through  a 
field  of  grain.  It  moves  without  moving.  In  some  such 
way  the  unchanging  volume  of  sound  soon  leaves  on  the 
ear  a  strange  sense  of  silence.  Now  and  again,  however, 
as  some  more  compact  mass  of  water  makes  its  fall,  a  new 
note  strikes  the  ear,  and  under  all  is  the  heavy  beating  of 
the  air  as  if  of  sound  too  low  for  the  range  of  human 
hearing.  It  has  always  seemed  to  me  as  if  much  of  the 
voice  of  Niagara  might  be  to  us  inaudible." 

Eugene  M.  Thayer,  in  a  notable  paper  on  "The  Music  of 
Niagara"  (Scribner's  Magazine,  February,  1881),  analyzes 
the  voice  of  the  cataract  as  it  appealed  to  his  trained  musical 
sense.  He  writes  the  chords  of  its  harmonies,  and  finds 


196  THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE. 

them  four  octaves  lower  than  the  lowest  range  of  our  piano 
keyboards.  His  study  is  exceedingly  suggestive  and  profit- 
able to  read.  Mr.  Thayer  often  visited  Niagara  Falls  and 
was  a  well-known  figure  at  that  resort.  His  passion  for  the 
place  suggested  in  some  of  its  phases  the  morbid  infatuation 
of  Francis  Abbott,  the  Niagara  "hermit"  of  many  years 
before.  Mr.  Thayer  committed  suicide  by  shooting,  at 
Burlington,  Vt.,  June  27, 


Much  might  be  written  of  the  bird-lovers  at  Niagara.  In 
1804  there  came  to  our  river  the  Paisley  poet- weaver  who 
had  turned  poet-naturalist,  Alexander  Wilson.  He  had 
walked  from  Philadelphia  to  Oswego,  coming  thence  to  the 
Niagara  by  the  lake.  In  my  paper  on  "Niagara  and  the 
Poets"  I  have  dwelt  at  some  length  on  Wilson's  adventures, 
and  on  his  work  as  a  poet;  in  the  present  connection  we 
need  recall  him  only  as  naturalist. 

The  Niagara  visit  was  four  years  before  the  publication 
of  the  first  volume  of  his  "American  Ornithology,"  but  he 
was  already  diligently  collecting  material  for  it.  At  the 
Falls  he  was  much  impressed  by  the  numbers  of  the  white- 
headed  or  bald  eagles.  The  most  striking  of  all  the  plates  in 
his  great  work  is  the  colored  engraving  showing  this  bird, 
about  one-third  life  size.  "In  the  background" — to  quote 
Wilson's  own  description, 

"is  seen  a  distant  view  of  the  celebrated  cataract  of  Niagara, 
a  noted  place  of  resort  for  these  birds,  as  well  on  account 
of  the  fish  procured  there,  as  for  the  numerous  carcasses 
of  squirrels,  deer,  bear  and  other  animals  that,  in  their 
attempts  to  cross  the  river,  above  the  Falls,  have  been 
dragged  into  the  current,  and  precipitated  down  that  tre- 
mendous gulf ;  where  among  the  rocks  which  bound  the 
rapids  below  they  furnish  a  rich  repast  for  the  vulture,  the 
raven  and  the  bald  eagle.  .  .  .  There  rises  from  the 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE.  197 

gulf  into  which  the  Fall  of  the  Horseshoe  descends,  a  stu- 
pendous column  of  smoke,  or  spray,  reaching  to  the 
heavens  and  moving  off  in  large  black  clouds,  according  to 
the  direction  of  the  wind,  forming  a  very  striking  and 
majestic  appearance.  The  eagles  are  here  seen  sailing 
about,  sometimes  losing  themselves  in  this  thick  column, 
and  again  re-appearing  in  another  place,  with  such  ease  and 
elegance  of  motion,  as  renders  the  whole  truly  sublime." 

Wilson's  prose,  especially  when  he  attempts  fine  writing, 
is  apt  to  grow  feeble.  In  his  famous  poem,  "The  Foresters," 
descriptive  of  this  tour  to  Niagara,  he  has  told  of  the  eagles 
in  verse : 

''High  o'er  the  wat'ry  uproar,  silent  seen, 
Sailing  sedate,  in  majesty  serene, 
Now  midst  the  pillared  spray  sublimely  lost, 
Swept  the  gray  eagles,  gazing  calm  and  slow 
On  all  the  horrors  of  the  gulf  below; 
Intent,  alone,  to  sate  themselves  with  blood, 
From  the  torn  victims  of  the  raging  flood." 

Wilson,  like  Audubon,  and  Charles  Lucien  Bonaparte, 
who  continued  Wilson's  work,  makes  numerous  references 
to  Niagara  Falls  as  the  habitat  of  birds  which  he  describes. 

John  James  Audubon  was  at  once  author,  artist  and  nat- 
uralist. As  America's  greatest  ornithologist  I  find  his  most 
fitting  place  among  the  scientists.  In  his  journal — a  fascinat- 
ing narrative  of  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  careers — he 
tells  of  his  visit  to  Niagara  in  the  summer  of  1824.  He  had 
crossed  the  State  from  Albany,  part  of  the  way  by  canal, 
as  yet  unfinished  to  Buffalo.  I  quote  from  his  journal : 

"August  24.  Took  passage  for  Buffalo,  arrived  safely, 
and  passed  a  sleepless  night,  as  most  of  my  nights  have  been 
since  I  began  my  wanderings.  Left  next  morning  for  the 
Falls  of  Niagara;  the  country  is  poor,  the  soil  stiff  white 
clay,  and  the  people  are  lank  and  sallow.  Arrived  at  the 
hotel,  found  but  few  visitors,  recorded  my  name  and  wrote 


198  THE   NIAGARA   IN   SCIENCE. 

under  it,  'who,  like  Wilson,  will  ramble,  but  never,  like  that 
great  man,  die  under  the  lash  of  a  bookseller.' 

"All  trembling  I  reached  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  and  oh! 
what  a  scene !  my  blood  shudders  still,  although  I  am  not  a 
coward,  at  the  grandeur  of  the  Creator's  power;  and  I 
gazed  motionless  on  this  new  display  of  the  irresistible  force 
of  one  of  His  elements.  The  falls,  the  rainbow,  the  rapids, 
and  the  surroundings  all  unite  to  strike  the  senses  with  awe ; 
they  defy  description  with  pen  or  pencil ;  and  a  view  satis- 
fied me  that  Niagara  never  had  been  and  never  will  be 
painted.  I  moved  towards  the  rapids,  over  which  there  is  a 
bridge  to  Goat  Island,  that  I  would  like  to  have  crossed,  to 
look  on  the  water  which  was  rushing  with  indescribable 
swiftness  below,  but  was  deterred  from  the  low  state  of 
my  funds.  Walking  along  the  edge  of  the  stream  for  a 
few  hundred  yards,  the  full  effect  of  the  whole  grand  rush 
of  the  water  was  before  me.  The  color  of  the  water  was 
a  verdigris  green,  and  contrasted  remarkably  with  the 
falling  torrent.  The  mist  of  the  spray  mounted  to  the 
clouds,  while  the  roaring  below  sounded  like  constant  heavy 
thunder,  making  me  think  at  times  that  the  earth  was 
shaking  also. 

"From  this  point  I  could  see  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
down  the  river,  which  appeared  quite  calm.  I  descended  a 
flight  of  about  seventy  steps,  and  walked  and  crouched  on 
my  hams  along  a  rugged,  slippery  path  to  the  edge  of  the 
river,  where  a  man  and  skiff  are  always  waiting  to  take 
visitors  to  the  opposite  shore.  I  approached  as  near  the 
falling  water  as  I  could,  without  losing  sight  of  the  objects 
behind  me.  In  a  few  moments  my  clothes  were  wet.  I 
retired  a  few  hundred  yards  to  admire  two  beautiful  rain- 
bows, which  seemed  to  surround  me,  and  also  looked  as  if 
spanning  obliquely  from  the  American  to  the  Canadian 
shore.  Visitors  can  walk  under  the  falling  sheet  of  water, 
and  see  through  it,  while  at  their  feet  are  thousands  of  eels 
lying  side  by  side,  trying  vainly  to  ascend  the  torrent. 

"I  afterwards  strolled  through  the  village  to  find  some 
bread  and  milk,  and  ate  a  good  dinner  for  twelve  cents. 


THE  NIAGARA   IN   SCIENCE.  199 

Went  to  bed  at  night  thinking  of  Franklin  eating  his  roll  in 
the  streets  of  Philadelphia,  of  Goldsmith  traveling  by  the 
help  of  his  musical  powers,  and  of  other  great  men  who  had 
worked  their  way  through  hardships  and  difficulties  to 
fame,  and  fell  asleep  hoping,  by  persevering  industry,  to 
make  a  name  for  myself  among  my  countrymen. 

"Buffalo,  August  25.  This  village  was  utterly  destroyed 
by  fire  in  the  War  of  1812,  but  now  has  about  200  houses,  a 
bank,  and  daily  mail.  It  is  now  filled  with  Indians,  who 
have  come  here  to  receive  their  annuity  from  the  Govern- 
ment. The  chief  Red  Jacket  is  a  noble-looking  man;  an- 
other, called  the  Devil's  Ramrod,  has  a  savage  look.  Took 
a  deck-passage  on  board  a  schooner  bound  to  Erie,  Penn- 
sylvania; fare,  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents,  to  furnish  my 
own  bed  and  provisions." 

Thus  far  the  journal ;  but  this  was  not  Audubon's  only 
visit  to  Niagara.  The  fortunate  reader  who  has  access  to 
Audubon's  great  work,  the  "Ornithological  Biography."  will 
find  therein  a  pleasant  chapter  on  Niagara,  describing 
another  visit,  apparently  in  1820.  The  following  is  ex- 
tracted from  it: 

"After  wandering  on  some  of  our  great  lakes  for  many 
months  I  bent  my  course  toward  the  celebrated  Falls  of 
Niagara,  being  desirous  of  taking  a  sketch  of  them.  This 
was  not  my  first  visit  to  them,  and  I  hoped  it  would  not  be 
the  last. 

"Artists  (I  know  not  if  I  can  be  called  one)  too  often 
.imagine  that  what  they  produce  must  be  excellent,  and  with 
that  foolish  idea  go  on  spoiling  much  paper  and  canvas, 
when  their  time  might  have  been  better  employed  in  a  dif- 
ferent manner.  But  digressions  aside — I  directed  my  steps 
towards  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  with  the  view  of  representing 
them  on  paper,  for  the  amusement  of  my  family. 

"Returning  as  I  then  was  from  a  tedious  journey,  and 
possessing  little  more  than  some  drawings  of  rare  birds  and 
plants,  I  reached  the  tavern  at  Niagara  Falls  in  such  plight 


200  THE   NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE. 

as  might  have  deterred  many  an  individual  from  obtruding 
himself  upon  a  circle  of  well-clad  and  perhaps  well-bred 
society.  Months  had  passed  since  the  last  of  my  linen  had 
been  taken  from  my  body,  and  used  to  clean  that  useful 
companion,  my  gun.  I  was  in  fact  covered  just  like  one  of 
the  poorer  class  of  Indians,  and  was  rendered  even  more 
disagreeable  to  the  eye  of  civilized  man,  by  not  having,  like 
them,  plucked  my  beard,  or  trimmed  my  hair  in  any  way. 
Had  Hogarth  been  living,  and  there  when  I  arrived,  he 
could  not  have  found  a  fitter  subject  for  a  Robinson  Crusoe. 
My  beard  covered  my  neck  in  front,  my  hair  fell  much 
lower  at  my  back,  the  leather  dress  which  I  wore  had  for 
months  stood  in  need  of  repair,  a  large  knife  hung  at  my 
side,  a  rusty  tin  box  containing  my  drawings  and  colors, 
and  wrapped  up  in  a  worn-out  blanket  that  had  served  me 
for  a  bed,  was  buckled  to  my  shoulders.  To  every  one  I 
must  have  seemed  immersed  in  the  depths  of  poverty,  per- 
haps of  despair.  Nevertheless,  as  I  cared  little  about  my 
appearance  during  those  happy  rambles,  I  pushed  into  the 
sitting-room,  unstrapped  my  little  burden,  and  asked  how 
soon  breakfast  would  be  ready. 

"In  America  no  person  is  ever  refused  entrance  to  the 
inns,  at  least  far  from  cities.  We  know  too  well  how  many 
poor  creatures  are  forced  to  make  their  way  from  other 
countries  in  search  of  employment,  or  to  seek  uncultivated 
land,  and  we  are  ever  ready  to  let  them  have  what  they  may 
call  for.  No  one  knew  who  I  was,  and  the  landlord  looking 
at  me  with  an  eye  of  close  scrutiny,  answered  that  break- 
fast would  be  on  the  table  as  soon  as  the  company  should 
come  down  from  their  rooms.  I  approached  this  important 
personage,  told  him  of  my  avocations,  and  convinced  him 
that  he  might  feel  safe  as  to  remuneration.  From  this 
moment  I  was,  with  him  at  least,  on  equal  footing  with 
every  person  in  his  house. 

"He  talked  a  good  deal  of  the  many  artists  who  had 
visited  the  Falls  that  season,  from  different  parts,  and 
offered  to  assist  me,  by  giving  such  accommodations  as  I 
might  require  to  finish  the  drawings  I  had  in  contempla- 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE.  201 

tion.  He  left  me,  and  as  I  looked  about  the  room,  I  saw 
several  views  of  the  Falls,  by  which  I  was  so  disgusted, 
that  I  suddenly  came  to  my  better  senses.  'What,'  thought 
I,  'have  I  come  here  to  mimic  nature  in  her  grandest  enter- 
prise, and  add  my  caricature  of  one  of  the  wonders  of  the 
world  to  those  which  I  here  see?  No.  I  give  up  the  vain 
attempt.  I  will  look  on  these  mighty  cataracts  and  imprint 
them  where  they  alone  can  be  represented — on  my  mind!' 

"Had  I  taken  a  view,  I  might  as  well  have  given  you 
what  might  be  termed  a  regular  account  of  the  form,  the 
height,  the  tremendous  roar  of  these  Falls;  might  have 
spoken  of  people  perilling  their  lives  by  going  between  the 
rock  and  the  sheet  of  water,  calculated  the  density  of  the 
atmosphere  in  that  strange  position,  related  wondrous  tales 
of  Indians  and  their  canoes  having  been  precipitated  the 
whole  depth;  might  have  told  of  the  narrow,  rapid  and 
rockbound  river  that  leads  the  waters  of  the  Erie  into  those 
of  Ontario,  remarking  en  passant  the  Devil's  Hole  and 
sundry  other  places  or  objects ;  but  supposing  you  had  been 
there,  my  description  would  prove  useless,  and  quite  as 
puny  as  my  intended  view  would  have  been  for  my  family ; 
and  should  you  not  have  seen  them,  and  are  fond  of  con- 
templating the  most  magnificent  of  the  Creator's  works,  go 
to  Niagara,  reader,  for  all  the  pictures  you  may  see,  all  the 
descriptions  you  may  read  of  these  mighty  Falls,  can  only 
produce  in  your  mind  the  faint  glimmer  of  the  glow-worm 
compared  with  the  overpowering  glory  of  the  meridian  sun. 

"I  breakfasted  amid  a  crowd  of  strangers,  who  gazed 
and  laughed  at  me,  paid  my  bill,  rambled  about  and  admired 
the  Falls  for  a  while,  saw  several  young  gentlemen  sketch- 
ing on  cards  the  mighty  mass  of  foaming  waters,  and  walked 
to  Buffalo,  where  I  purchased  new  apparel  and  sheared 
my  beard.  I  then  enjoyed  civilized  life  as  much  as  a  month 
before  I  had  enjoyed  the  wildest  solitudes  and  the  darkest 
recesses  of  mountain  and  forest." 

More  than  one  bird-lover  has  since  pursued  his  favorite 
study  in  the  vicinity  of  the  great  cataract,  and  has  written  of 
it.  The  Duke  of  Argyll,  not  many  years  ago,  spent  some 


202  THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE. 

time  at  Niagara,  and  in  a  series  of  pleasantly-written  articles 
in  the  Youth's  Companion,  made  special  note  of  the  birds 
he  had  seen  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Falls. 


I  must  not  forget  the  visit  of  Professor  Louis  Agassiz, 
who  gave  a  course  of  scientific  lectures  at  Niagara  Falls  in 
the  summer  of  1848.  He  was  really  the  leader  of  a  party  of 
scientists,  who  made  an  excursion  from  Boston  to  the  north 
shore  of  Lake  Superior,  June  to  August,  1848.  The  nar- 
rative of  the  tour,  written  by  J.  Elliot  Cabot,  gives  an 
account  of  the  party's  sojourn  at  the  Falls,  of  their  scientific 
explorations  in  the  neighborhood,  and  of  Professor  Agas- 
siz' evening  lectures  on  the  phenomena  of  the  region. 
Agassiz  saw  at  Niagara  for  the  first  time  a  living  gar-pike, 
the  only  representative  among  modern  fishes  of  the  fossil 
type  of  Lepidosteus.  From  this  type,  he  tells  us,  he  had 
learned  more  than  from  any  other,  of  the  relations  between 
the  past  and  present  fishes.  Incidentally  we  learn  from  Mr. 
Cabot's  narrative,  that  rattlesnakes  were  still  abundant  at 
Niagara  Falls  and  pigs  roamed  the  streets  of  Buffalo. 


Niagara  has  ever  been  beloved  of  the  botanists.  Her 
constant  baptism  of  spray  no  doubt  has  something  to  do  not 
only  with  the  growth  of  an  exceptionally  large  number  of 
species,  but  with  the  profusion  of  individuals.  Goat  Island 
in  particular  is  prolific  of  flowering  annuals ;  and  although 
year  after  year  its  natural  gardens  have  been  despoiled  in 
May  and  June  by  the  hordes  of  school  children  who  cail 
their  wholesale  pulling  of  plants  "botanizing,"  yet  most  of 
the  species  persist,  and,  to  a  surprising  degree,  in  generous 
and  forgiving  abundance. 

Peter  Kalm  was  the  first  botanist  to  study  the  flora  of  the 


THE  NIAGARA   IN   SCIENCE.  203 

Falls.  Students  of  the  science  today  need  only  a  reminder 
to  make  them  associate  two  of  our  most  interesting  wild 
plants  with  the  great  Swedish  botanist.  Both  are  named 
for  him.  One  is  Lobelia  Kalmianum;  the  other,  the  rarest 
of  the  St.  Johnsworts  in  this  latitude,  Hypericum  Kalmii; 
and  both  of  these  plants  are  to  be  found  today  at  Niagara 
Falls,  as  no  doubt  they  were  in  1750,  by  Kalm  himself.  An- 
other rarity  that  has  in  recent  years  been  found  near  the 
Horseshoe  Fall,  Canadian  side,  is  Daphne  tnezereum,  but  we 
cannot  ascribe  to  it  association  with  any  early  flower-loving 
visitor. 

It  is  probable  that  F.  A.  Michaux,  whose  "North  Ameri- 
can Silva,"  published  in  1807,  was  the  first  work  of  value 
relating  to  our  native  trees,  visited  Niagara.  Though  I  do 
not  find  allusion  to  the  Falls  in  his  work,  he  frequently 
notes,  in  his  description  of  species,  that  he  observed  them 
"on  the  shores  of  Lake  Ontario"  or  Erie. 

Among  the  published  letters  of  Alexander  Wilson  is  the 

following : 

PHILADELPHIA,  July  8,  1806. 

To  MR.  WILSON  AT  THE  FALLS  OF  NIAGARA. 

Dear  Sir:  This  will  be  handed  to  you  by  Mr.  Michaux, 
a  gentleman  of  an  amiable  character,  and  a  distinguished 
naturalist,  who  is  pursuing  his  botanical  researches  through 
North  America,  and  intends  visiting  the  Cataract  of 
Niagara.  The  kindness  I  received  from  your  family  in 
1804  makes  me  desirous  that  my  friend,  Mr.  Michaux, 
should  reside  with  you  during  his  stay  at  Niagara ;  and  any 
attention  paid  to  him  will  be  considered  as  done  to  myself, 
and  suitable  acknowledgments  made  in  person  by  me  on 
my  arrival  at  Niagara,  which  I  expect  will  be  early  next 
Spring. 

You  will  be  so  good  as  give  Mr.  Michaux  information 
respecting  the  late  rupture  of  the  rock  at  the  Falls,  of  the 
burning  spring  above,  and  point  out  to  him  the  place  of 


204  THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE. 

descent  to  the  Rapids  below,  with  any  other  information 
respecting  the  wonderful  scenery  around  you. 

In  the  short  stay  I  made,  and  the  unfavorable  weather 
I  experienced,  I  was  prevented  from  finishing  my  intended 
sketch  equal  to  my  wishes;  but  I  design  to  spend  several 
weeks  with  you,  and  not  only  take  correct  drawings,  but 
particular  descriptions  of  every  thing  relating  to  that  stu- 
pendous Cataract,  and  to  publish  a  more  complete  and  satis- 
factory account,  and  a  better  representation  of  it,  than  has 
been  yet  done  in  the  United  States. 

I  had  a  rough  journey  home  through  the  Genessee  coun- 
try, which  was  covered  with  snow  to  the  depth  of  fifteen 
inches,  and  continued  so  all  the  way  to  Albany.  If  you 
know  of  any  gentlemen  in  your  neighborhood  acquainted 
with  botany,  be  so  good  as  to  introduce  Mr.  Michaux  to 
them.  .  .  . 

I  cannot  say  who  was  the  Mr.  Wilson  at  Niagara  Falls, 
or  whether  Mr.  Michaux  used  this  letter;  but  he  probably 
did.  His  father,  Andre  Michaux,  also  studied  the  flora  and 
silva  of  America,  but  did  not  come  into  the  Niagara  region. 
Alexander  Wilson's  project  of  revisiting  the  Falls  was  never 
carried  out.  His  original  sketches,  made  in  1804,  were 
completed  by  an  artist,  engraved  by  George  Cooke  of 
London,  and  illustrated  his  poem  of  "The  Foresters,"  as  it 
originally  appeared  in  the  Philadelphia  Portfolio,  in  1809-10. 

John  Bartram,  the  first  American  botanist — spoken  of 
by  the  great  Linnaeus  as  "the  greatest  natural  botanist  in 
the  world,"  made  his  way  in  1743,  with  Lewis  Evans,  from 
Philadelphia  to  Fort  Oswego  on  Lake  Ontario.  Such  a 
journey  through  the  wilderness  was  no  slight  undertaking, 
and  no  doubt  these  naturalists  felt  on  reaching  the  lake 
that  they  had  pushed  far  enough  into  a  region  of  doubtful 
hospitality.  They  did  not  come  on  to  Niagara.  Amos 
Eaton,  eminent  in  his  time  both  as  botanist  and  geologist, 
studied  those  sciences  at  Niagara,  which  he  visited  as 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE.  205 

early  as  1824.  Asa  Gray  knew  the  Niagara  region  prior 
to  1834  when  he  published  his  "Notice  of  some  new,  rare 
or  otherwise  interesting  plants  from  the  Northern  and 
Western  Portions  of  the  State  of  New  York."  Whoever 
has  used  Gray's  "Manual"  will  recall  his  frequent  citation 
of  Niagara  Falls  as  habitat  of  uncommon  species,  though 
no  doubt  many  of  his  specimens  were  had  in  exchange,  as 
perhaps  his  data  were  secured,  from  local  correspondents. 

Constantine  Rafinesque,  an  enthusiastic  but  most  eccen- 
tric naturalist,  visited  Niagara  Falls  in  1826,  studying  and 
collecting  with  impartial  zest  its  plants,  birds,  animals,  fishes 
and  rocks.  A  meager  account  of  his  sojourn  there  is  con- 
tained in  his  "Life  of  Travels  and  Researches  in  North 
America  and  South  Europe,"  published  in  1836. 

To  those  of  us  who  live  within  the  sound  of  Niagara  no 
student  of  the  regional  flora  will  ever  attain  quite  the  place 
long  held  by  Judge  George  W.  Clinton.  For  many  years  he 
was,  preeminently,  Buffalo's  naturalist.  Botany  was  his 
delight,  and  no  one  knew  better  than  he  all  the  herbal  and 
sylvan  treasures  of  Niagara's  banks.  He  especially  loved 
the  Whirlpool  woods,  not  then  as  now  despoiled  and  de- 
vastated, but  a  wonderful  wild  nook,  where  great  tulip  and 
sassafras  trees  grew.  Foster's  Flats,  too — now  politely 
named  Niagara  Glen — with  its  walking-fern  (camptosorus 
rhyzophyllus),  its  rare  Aspidiums  and  Pellaeas,  and  other 
lovely  shy  things  in  the  vegetable  world,  was  a  favorite 
forage-ground.  As  David  F.  Day  wrote  of  him:  "The 
thick  woods,  the  shaded  dells  and  the  wild  fastnesses  about 
the  Falls  of  Niagara  and  at  Portage  become  known  to  us  as 
they  had  never  been  known  before."  Judge  Clinton  wrote 
of  his  botanical  studies  in  his  "Notes  of  a  Botanist,"  which 
delighted  many  readers  during  their  newspaper  publication. 
His  successor  in  this  special  field  was  Mr.  Day,  who  like 


206  THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE. 

Judge  Clinton,  studied  much  but  wrote  and  published  all 
too  little. 


Every  natural  phenomenon,  every  scientific  phase  of  the 
Falls,  has  been  written  of.  Some  of  the  minor  writings  in 
this  field  are  most  interesting.  For  instance,  Charles  A. 
Carus-Wilson  has  written  (Nature,  vol.  47)  of  the  Niagara 
spray  clouds,  which  "exhibit  an  ice  bow  in  clear  frosty 
weather."  He  notes  the  absence  of  mock  suns,  which  are 
accounted  for  by  supposing  the  presence  of  hexagonal  ice 
crystals ;  and  he  offers  the  theory  that  the  ice  crystals  in  the 
Niagara  spray  clouds  are  not  hexagons  but  rhombs. 

More  appealing,  perhaps,  to  popular  appreciation  are  the 
color  observations  of  H.  G.  Madan  (Nature,  Dec.  21,  1882), 
who  finds  in  the  American  fall  "a  perfect  and  permanent 
illustration  of  contrast-colors.  The  pure,  green,  even  sheet 
of  water  is  trimmed,  as  it  were,  at  regular  intervals,  by  broad 
bands  of  foam,  which  although  of  course  really  white, 
appear  of  a  delicate  rose-pink  hue.  .  .  .  The  effect 
heightens  the  beauty  of  the  beautiful  fall,  and  I  am  surprised 
that  no  poet  has  made  capital  out  of  it."  It  would  seem  to 
be  rather  "capital"  for  the  artists. 


May  I  close  these  notes,  which  could  be  much  extended, 
by  recording  one  observation  of  my  own,  of  Niagara  Falls 
as  a  cloud-maker. 

I  had  occasion  to  go  to  Lewiston  on  an  early  morning 
train.  Seated  on  the  river  side  of  the  car,  I  enjoyed  the 
prospect  of  the  fresh  and  dewy  landscape.  It  had  been  a 
windless  night,  and  banks  of  fog  were  still  sleeping  above  the 
fields  along  the  river.  As  the  train  reached  that  fair  stretch 
of  stream,  north  of  Tonawanda,  I  observed  a  long,  heavy 
cloud  lying  on  the  northwest  horizon.  The  sun  was  yet  low 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE.  207 

in  the  east,  and  the  level  beams  made  sharp  contrasts  of 
light  and  shade  on  the  cloud.  As  a  bend  in  the  road  opened 
an  unobstructed  view  of  the  heaviest  and  lowest-hanging 
portion  of  this  cloud,  it  was  discovered  to  reach  earthward 
with  a  mightly  tap-root,  the  lower  end  of  which  was  hid  by 
intervening  trees. 

I  rubbed  my  eyes  to  make  sure  there  was  no  illusion,  and 
resurveyed  the  celestial  field.  A  few  little  clouds  were  at 
rest  here  and  there  on  the  horizon's  rim,  but  in  no  quarter 
any  heavy  cloud,  except  this  one,  whose  arms  stretched  out, 
vaporous  and  dark,  across  the  Niagara  peninsula  for  miles 
on  the  one  hand  toward  Lake  Erie,  and  toward  Lake  Ontario 
on  the  other;  and  whose  middle  part  was  joined  to  earth 
by  this  sharply-defined  pillar  of  vapor.  It  was  not  until,  a 
mile  or  so  below  the  Falls,  where  the  road  skirts  the  edge 
of  the  gorge  and  gives  the  traveler  a  fleeting  but  unob- 
structed view  of  the  cataract,  that  this  earthward-reaching 
cloud  was  seen  to  be  nothing  but  the  uprising  vapor  of  the 
Falls.  During  the  still  hours  of  the  night,  undissipated  by 
the  sun,  it  had  poured  upward  and  spread  out  on  a  support- 
ing stratum  of  air  until  it  shadowed  the  country  for  many 
miles. 

Returning,  a  little  later  in  the  day,  there  was  to  be  seen 
only  a  distant-drifting  cloud  and  the  shifting  spray  that 
vanished  from  sight  as  it  rose  in  the  warm  air.  The  sun 
and  the  morning  breeze  had  broken  the  tie  that  held  the 
cloud  to  the  cataract  which  had  given  it  birth. 


Men  looked  at  the  cataract  for  many  years  before  the 
idea  of  utilizing  its  energy  occurred  to  them.  The  earlier 
visitors  viewed  it,  as  all  the  universe  was  viewed  before  the 
slow  rise  of  a  knowledge  of  nature  developed  the  natural 
sciences,  as  merely  an  extraordinary  manifestation  of  Divine 


208  THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE. 

power.  As  Nature's  story  became  better  known  and  geology 
more  and  more  an  exact  science,  Niagara  was  studied 
with  a  view  of  reading  from  this  torn  page  of  the  earth  some 
portion  of  its  history.  The  great  cataract  was  seen  to  be 
one  of  the  world's  chronometers,  measuring  with  its  cease- 
less beat  the  progress  of  the  ages.  Men  ceased  to  dispute 
over  the  Mosaic  account  of  creation,  ceased  attempting  to 
prove  by  the  phenomena  of  Niagara  that  the  Deluge  was 
universal  and  that  it  occurred  exactly  when  the  pre-scientific 
interpretation  of  the  Pentateuch  made  out  that  it  should 
have  occurred.  Gradually  through  the  decades,  these  themes 
of  earlier  strife  and  difference  lost  their  importance.  The 
pulpit  ceased  to  assail  as  infidel  the  geologist  who  dared 
assert  that  the  recession  of  Niagara  proved  the  earth  of  ri 
far  greater  age  than  the  six  thousand  or  so  Mosaic  years. 
Gradually  the  age  of  the  earth  and  the  erosion  of  the 
Niagara  gorge  were  taken  as  facts — as  things  demonstrated. 

And  all  the  time,  while  artists  and  poets  and  critics  were 
painting  and  rhapsodizing,  more  and  more  men  of  a  practical 
turn  were  thinking  of  the  tremendous  power  of  Niagara. 
No  miller  who  had  ever  regulated  the  flow  of  a  little  stream 
to  turn  his  mill-wheel  could  look  upon  Niagara  without 
reflecting  on  the  tremendous  waste  of  energy.  A  small  mill 
'•-or  two  were  set  by  Niagara's  margin  in  the  pioneer  days. 
Later,  when  settlement  had  advanced  and  capital  was  avail- 
able, came  the  era  of  construction  of  hydraulic  canals, 
diverting  a  small  fraction  of  the  flood,  yet  by  its  aid  building 
up  no  inconsiderable  a  city  of  many  manufactories. 

All  this  time  the  literary  world  was  having  its  small  say. 
Hundreds  of  travelers  wrote  hundreds  of  uninspired  books, 
and  would-be  poets  measured  their  emotions  in  mediocre 
verse.  Deeply  religious  natures,  such  as  Mrs.  Sigourney, 
Margaret  Fuller,  Harriet  Martineau  and  Fredrika  Bremer, 


I 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE.  209 

were  brought  by  Niagara  into  moods  of  exalted  devotion. 
Irritating  British  critics,  disliking  America  and  Americans, 
of  the  type  of  Basil  Hall  and  Mrs.  Trollope,  found  Niagara 
i>.  new  excuse  for  hostile  demonstrations.  A  few  men,  true 
poets  and  analysts  at  soul — Dickens,  Hawthorne,  Henry 
James,  and  other  choice  spirits — labored  to  reveal  to  us  the 
real  Niagara.  And  all  this  time  the  great  river  was  pound- 
ing away  at  its  rocks  and  hurling  its  measureless  millions  of 
tons  into  the  abyss  to  no  purpose  whatever  save  as  a  means ,  ... 
of  aesthetic  gratification.  But  as  it  is  a  law  of  Nature  that 
man's  higher  attainments  come  in  the  process  of  evolution 
from  those  that  are  lower,  so  is  it  in  the  relation  of  man  to 
Niagara:  as  the  latest  expression  of  his  appreciation  of  it, 
he  has  begun  to  use  it,  without  destroying  it  or  marring  its 
beauty,  for  the  good  of  mankind. 

The  greatest  thing  that  can  be  recorded  of  Niagara,  in  no 
matter  what  aspect  it  is  studied,  is,  that  we  have  in  some 
measure  learned  to  utilize  it  for  human  good.  With  Niagara 
as  the  starting  point,  as  the  inspiration,  all  the  rivers  of  the 
world,  big  and  little,  which  offer  any  available  power,  are 
being  brought  into  new  service  for  humanity.  Already  a 
thousand  waterfalls — of  mighty  cataracts  and  of  sylvan 
cascades — are  "harnessed,"  as  the  phrase  is ;  and  the  record 
of  it  is  the  latest  and  greatest  chapter  in  the  story  of 
Niagara. 

When  the  historian  comes  who  can  write  knowingly  and 
authoritatively  of  this  phase  of  the  subject,  he  will  accord 
eminence,  if  not  absolute  precedence,  to  Sir  Carl  Wilhelm 
Siemens.  His  name  will  always  be  associated  with  Niagara 
Falls.  This  renowned  physicist  and  inventor  found  in  our 
cataract  his  greatest  spur  to  achievement.  In  many  papers, 
mostly  contained  in  his  collected  "Scientific  Works"  (3  vols., 
London,  1889)  will  be  found  record  of  his  accomplishments 


210  THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE. 

in  this  connection.  In  volume  two  is  a  paper,  "On  the 
transmission  and  distribution  of  energy  by  the  electric  cur- 
rent," read  at  the  meeting  of  the  Physical  Society  (British), 
February  22,  1879.  In  volume  three  is  his  address  as  presi- 
dent of  the  Iron  and  Steel  Institute,  delivered  March  20, 
1877.  This  paper,  first  published  in  the  Journal  of  the  Iron 
and  Steel  Institute  for  1877,  was,  I  believe,  the  first  formu- 
lation by  a  scientist,  and  first  presentation  to  a  scientific 
body,  of  a  method  of  electrically  transmitting  Niagara's 
power  for  use.  In  these  and  other  addresses  of  Sir  William, 
are  given,  more  or  less  in  extensu,  his  observations  on 
waste  energy  at  Niagara,  and  the  electrical  transmission  of 
power  therefrom. 

In  the  "Life  of  Sir  William  Siemens"  (Anglicising  his 
name)  by  William  Pole  (London,  1888)  is  set  forth  evi- 
dence to  show  that  Siemens  was  the  first  to  propose  the 
utilization  of  Niagara  power  by  electrical  transmission. 
"This  subject,"  says  his  biographer, "formed  a  favorite  study 
of  Dr.  Siemens;  and  it  seems  to  have  first  strongly  im- 
pressed itself  on  his  mind  when,  in  the  autumn  of  1876,  he 
went  to  America  and  visited  the  Falls  of  Niagara.  In  all 
his  many  journeys  in  different  countries  nothing  made  such 
a  deep  impression  on  him  as  this  wonderful  natural  phenom- 
enon. The  stupendous  rush  of  waters  filled  him  with  fear 
and  admiration,  as  it  does  every  one  who  comes  within  sound 
of  its  mighty  roar."  Dr.  Siemens  in  his  own  account  says 
nothing  of  "fear  and  admiration,"  but  observes  that  the  vast 
amount  of  falling  water  accomplished  nothing  save  by  its 
weight  and  concussion  to  raise,  by  a  minute  fraction  of  a 
degree,  the  temperature  of  the  St.  Lawrence  river !  "But," 
continues  Dr.  Pole, 

"he  saw  in  it  something  far  beyond  what  was  obvious  to 
the  multitude;  for  his  scientific  mind  could  not  help  view- 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE.  211 

ing  it  as  an  inexpressibly  grand  manifestation  of  mechani- 
cal energy.  And  he  at  once  began  to  speculate  whether  it 
was  absolutely  necessary  that  the  whole  of  this  glorious 
magnitude  of  power  should  be  wasted  in  dashing  itself  into 
the  chasm  below? — whether  it  was  not  possible  that  at 
least  some  portion  of  it  might  be  practically  utilized  for 
the  benefit  of  mankind?  He  had  not  long  to  think  before 
a  possible  means  of  doing  this  presented  itself  to  him.  The 
dynamo  machine  had  just  then  been  brought  to  perfection, 
partly  by  his  own  labors;  and  he  asked  himself,  Why 
should  not  this  colossal  power  actuate  a  colossal  series  of 
dynamos,  whose  conducting  wires  might  transmit  its 
activity  to  places  miles  away?  This  great  idea,  formed 
amid  the  thunderings  of  the  cataract,  accompanied  him  all 
the  way  home,  and  was  meditated  on  in  the  quiet  of  his 
study.  He  submitted  it  to  the  test  of  mathematical  calcula- 
tion, and  so  far  convinced  himself  of  its  reasonable  nature, 
that  he  determined  when  a  fitting  occasion  arrived,  to  make 
it  known.  That  occasion  arrived  in  the  spring  of  1877, 
when  he  had  to  give  an  opening  address  as  President  of 
the  Iron  and  Steel  Institute." 

For  many  years,  many  schemes  were  devised,  and  plans 
proposed,  for  securing  some  part  of  the  Niagara  power. 
When  the  development  of  electrical  science  made  it  possible 
not  only  to  catch  this  power  but  to  carry  it  to  distant  places, 
new  conceptions  evolved  as  to  what  was  possible.  But  in 
the  earlier  plans  electricity  played  no  part.  As  early  as  1830 
George  Catlin  constructed  a  model  of  the  Falls,  to  scale. 
Men  were  even  then  figuring  on  using  its  power,  and  Catlin's 
model  may  have  stimulated  their  fancies,  but  it  seems  to 
have  been  chiefly  used  for  exhibition,  as  any  painting  might 
have  been. 

As  late  as  1878  a  company  was  formed  to  transmit  from 
the  Falls  to  Buffalo  "a  constant  supply  of  compressed  air," 
to  be  used  as  a  substitute  for  steam  in  factories. 


212  THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE. 

In  the  years  immediately  preceding  the  perfection  of  the 
dynamo  a  great  many  plans  were  proposed  for  utilizing 
Niagara  power.  Buffalo  being  the  chief  power-using  place 
on  the  river,  most  of  these  early  schemes  sought  to  take  the 
power  from  the  river  at  Buffalo.  Some  of  these  deserve  to 
be  chronicled  for  their  originality,  if  nothing  else.  T.  W. 
Clark  of  Schofield,  Wis.,  proposed  "to  move  the  great 
cataract  of  Niagara  back  to  Buffalo  and  drop  the  water 
through  a  thousand  great  turbine  wheels  located  in  wheel 
pits  240  feet  deep  at  that  city."  The  "moving"  of  the  Falls 
was  to  be  done  by  driving  a  great  tunnel  through  the  Clinton 
shale  from  the  precipice  at  the  cataract  to  the  outlet  of  Lake 
Erie,  300  feet  below  the  surface  and  22  miles  long.  This 
project  was  to  make  Buffalo  "the  greatest  manufacturing 
city  on  earth."  Less  benevolent  was  the  project  of  one  Peter 
Cameron,  apparently  a  citizen  of  Rochester,  who  advocated 
a  deep  tunnel  from  the  Falls  to  Lake  Erie,  not  to  build  up 
Buffalo,  but  to  drain  Lake  Erie,  make  Buffalo,  Toledo  and 
Cleveland  inland  cities  and  "reclaim"  the  floor  of  Lake  Erie 
for  agricultural  purposes. 

Still  another  project  of  the  late  '8o's  or  thereabout  was 
that  of  Charles  M.  Bartlett  of  Chicago,  who  secured  patents 
and  claimed  to  have  ample  financial  backing  from  Chicago 
capitalists,  for  the  installation  at  Niagara  Falls  of  a  power 
plant  which  would  not  mar  the  beauty  of  the  scene.  He 
proposed  to  cut  chambers  in  the  rock  under  the  river  back 
of  the  cataract,  in  which  turbines  could  be  placed.  He  pro- 
posed to  enter  the  bedrock  of  the  river  at  the  foot  of  the 
precipice.  The  entrance  excavation  was  afterwards  to  con- 
stitute the  tail-race.  Back  of  this  he  planned  to  penetrate 
upward  as  well  as  laterally,  and  cut  room  for  the  bottom 
floors  of  the  wheel-pit : 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE.  213 

"The  lowest  floor  will  be  used  as  a  waste-room  to  receive 
the  water  before  it  flows  out  through  the  tail-race.  The 
second  floor  will  be  the  machinery  floor,  on  which  are  to  be 
located  a  turbine  wheel  and  electric  dynamos  to  store  and 
convert  the  power  obtained,  to  use.  .  .  .  Workmen 
who  operate  the  machinery  will  be  let  down  by  an  elevator 
shaft  sunk  on  shore  and  conecting  from  the  bottom  with 
the  wheel -pit  by  tunnel.  A  house  at  the  top  of  the  elevator 
shaft  will  probably  be  the  only  structure  above  ground." 

Buffalo  was  to  have  been  Mr.  Bartlett's  first  main  point 
for  disposing  of  his  power.  A  publication  of  the  day  says : 
''As  an  inducement  to  New  York  to  grant  the  right  to 
operate,  Mr.  Bartlett  will  lay  before  the  Legislature  an 
elaborate  design  of  electric  lights,  which  he  will  agree  to 
suspend  over  the  brink  of  the  Falls  from  the  American  to 
the  Canadian  shore  and  keep  perpetually  burning.  The  de- 
sign will  represent  the  two  nations  shaking  hands  across  the 
chasm."  Although  much  reported  for  a  time,  in  the  press, 
this  project  presently  dropped  out  of  sight,  perhaps  because 
the  necessary  legislative  consent  was  not  secured.  In  view 
of  the  subsequent  action  of  Canada  relative  to  "reciprocity" 
overtures  made  by  the  United  States,  the  proposed  elec- 
trical clasped  hands  above  the  cataract  would  have  been 
at  least  somewhat  premature. 

The  most  amazing  project  of  those  years  was  that  of 
Leonard  Henkle  of  Rochester,  who  gravely  produced  elab- 
orately-drawn plans  and  unfolded  a  scheme  for  the  construc- 
tion of  a  monstrous  building,  to  bridge  the  Niagara  river 
from  Goat  Island  to  the  Canadian  shore,  35  feet  above  the 
brink  of  the  fall.  It  was  to  be  1,600  feet  long,  804  feet 
high  in  the  center  and  606  feet  at  the  ends,  with  from  40  to 
50  stories !  Its  lower  part  was  to  be  used  for  power-genera- 
tion. The  inventor  proposed  to  install  "122  pairs  of  twin 
turbine  wheels,  each  of  6,000  horse-power,  making  in  all 


214  THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE. 

732,000  horse-power  under  a  28-foot  head  of  water.  It  is 
estimated  that  21,000,000  cubic  feet  of  water  pass  over  the 
Falls  per  minute,  and  by  this  7,320  dynamos  of  1,000  horse- 
power each  will  be  run."  I  hesitate  to  quote  further  from 
Mr.  Henkle's  astounding  prospectus.  His  ideas  were  per- 
haps of  the  sort  that  belong  less  to  Niagara  and  science, 
than  to  dreams  and  visions.  But  in  his  day  he  had  a  hear- 
ing, if  not  always  a  serious  one,  and  the  press,  especially 
of  Western  New  York,  lent  itself  generously  to  the  some- 
what ironical  exploitation  of  his  project.  The  cost  of  the 
undertaking  v/as  estimated  at  $38,000,000,  and  the  chief 
promoter  was  quoted  at  one  time  as  saying  that  $17,500,000 
were  pledged  "by  persons  who  are  interested  in  the  under- 
taking." Not  the  least  striking  feature  of  it  all  was  the 
vast  assembly  hall  which  was  to  be  provided  in  the  very 
ample  building,  devoted  to  the  uses  not  only  of  art  and 
science,  but  especially  dedicated  to  religion  and  the  promo- 
tion of  international  amity. 

The  decade  of  the  '8o's  was  prolific  in  Niagara  schemes. 
The  Buffalo  Historical  Society  preserves  the  original  list  of 
subscribers  to  a  fund  for  a  prize  to  be  given  to  the  winner 
of  a  competition  for  utilizing  the  power  of  Niagara  river. 
It  contains  the  signatures  of  108  men  and  firms,  chiefly  of 
Buffalo,  who  from  July  14,  1887  to  May  23,  1888,  subscribed 
$1,000  each  to  this  project.  The  fund  was  to  constitute  "a 
prize  or  reward  to  be  offered  to  the  inventors  of  the  world 
for  the  discovery  or  invention  (and  sole  right  to  use  the 
same),  of  the  best  appliance  for  utilizing,  and  that  wfll 
utilize  economically,  the  water  power  of  Niagara  river  at 
or  near  Buffalo,"  etc.  Numerous  plans,  most  of  them  of  the 
"crank"  variety,  were  elicited  by  this  offer,  which  was  widely 
advertised.  The  more  promising  were  submitted  to  a  board 
of  hydraulic  engineers  and  other  competent  persons;  but 


THE  NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE.  215 

in  the  end  all  were  rejected ;  so  that  no  prizes  were  awarded, 
nor  were  any  of  the  subscriptions  ever  called  for. 

Some  years  later,  after  power-development  at  the  Falls 
had  been  successfully  undertaken,  Alonzo  C.  Mather  pro- 
posed a  combined  bridge  and  power  wheel  construction  for 
the  Niagara  river  at  Buffalo.  His  plans  were  regarded  as 
far  more  practical  than  most  of  those  that  had  been  pro- 
posed ;  and  as  he  professed  to  be  able  to  finance  his  under- 
taking without  popular  subscriptions,  municipal  or  State  aid, 
and  merely  sought  the  necessary  permission  to  build  his 
bridge,  his  claims  received  serious  and  for  a  time  favorable 
attention.  A  bill  granting  the  desired  permission  passed  at 
least  two  Legislatures  at  Albany.  In  1899  Mr.  Mather  was 
again  before  the  Legislature  with  a  measure  which  had  the 
endorsement  of  Buffalo's  Exchanges,  and  of  the  Mayor. 
At  this  time  the  inventor  asked  only  for  permission  to  erect 
an  experimental  span,  to  demonstrate  the  soundness  of  his 
claims ;  but  although  much  seemed  to  be  offered,  with  vast 
possibilities,  opposition  developed  and  the  Mather  bridge 
bill  never  received  a  Governor's  signature. 

When  the  history  of  this  phase  of  "Niagara  and  Science" 
is  written,  it  will  contain  due  recognition  of  the  work  of 
Thomas  Evershed,  who  first  suggested  the  utilization  of 
Niagara  power  by  means  of  wheelpits  with  a  tunnel  tail-race 
to  the  lower  river.  It  will  record  the  part  borne  by  the 
International  Commission  of  which  Sir  William  Thomson 
(Lord  Kelvin)  was  the  president,  his  associates  being 
Professor  Mascart,  Colonel  Theodore  Turrettini,  Ur.  Cole- 
man  Sellers  and  Professor  W.  C.  Unwin.  And  it  will  give 
due  credit  to  many  other  men  of  great  attainments,  among 
them  George  Forbes  and  William  Birch  Rankine,  who  in  one 
capacity  and  another  shared  in  the  work  of  "harnessing" 
Niagara.  When  this  history  is  written  it  will  tell  of  the  co- 


216  THE   NIAGARA   IN  SCIENCE. 

operation  of  the  greatest  engineers  and  electricians  of  our 
age.  The  literature  of  this  subject  is  found  today  less  in 
books  than  in  the  pages  of  engineering  and  electrical  jour- 
nals and  the  Proceedings  of  learned  societies.  Something 
of  it  is  contained  in  the  "Life  of  Lord  Kelvin,"  by  S.  P. 
Thompson  (London,  1910).  The  story  of  the  gradual  con- 
struction, installation  and  operation  of  power  plants  at 
Niagara  Falls,  already  written  by  a  thousand  pens,  is  still 
being  written — and  still  to  be  written.  It  is  the  most 
important,  the  most  fascinating,  the  most  splendid  chapter 
in  all  the  literature  of  Niagara. 

In  common  with  all  other  parts  of  our  country,  Niagara 
has  its  literature  of  history  and  locality;  but  in  distinction 
from  all  others  it  has  a  literature  which  celebrates  one  of  the 
world's  greatest  wonders.  From  the  day  of  its  discovery 
to  this  hour,  Niagara  has  been  a  point  of  pilgrimage  for  all 
lovers  of  nature,  for  all  devotees  at  the  shrine  of  beauty  and 
grandeur.  And  Niagara  has  spoken  to  each,  after  his  kind. 
For  the  artist,  she  draws  aside  her  silvery  veil,  and  in  her 
rainbows  and  her  emerald  tide  gives  him  glimpses  of  the 
beauty  of  light,  of  form  and  of  motion,  which  are  hints  from 
worlds  hereafter.  To  the  musician,  she  sounds  the  deep 
diapasons  of  earth's  grandest  organ.  To  the  empty  minded, 
she  makes  no  revelation.  To  all  high  and  serious  minds,  she 
brings  peace,  tranquillity,  wholesome  renewals  of  strength 
and  kinship  with  nature.  To  the  devout,  she  speaks  as  with 
the  voice  of  God.  These  are  some  of  the  varied  utterances 
which  we  find  recorded  in  the  literature  of  the  Niagara 
region. 


TWO  EARLY  VISITORS 


'TpHE  narratives  of  early  travels  in  the  Niagara  region 
•*•  have  for  me  a  peculiar  attraction ;  partly,  no  doubt, 
because  they  help  to  fill  in  periods  in  our  history  for  which 
data  are  scanty;  and  partly,  perhaps,  because  they  give  us 
the  Niagara  landscape,  and  conditions  hereabouts,  before 
the  adjuncts  of  civilization  had  so  largely  obliterated  the 
things  of  the  wilderness.  Often  have  I  echoed  the  senti- 
ment expressed  by  Tyrone  Power,  an  Irish  actor  of  worth 
and  wit,  who  visited  the  Niagara  early  in  the  last  century: 
"How  I  have  envied  those,"  he  says,  "who  first  sought 
Niagara,  through  the  scarce-trod  wilderness,  with  the  In- 
dian for  a  guide;  and  who  slept  upon  its  banks  with  the 
summer  trees  for  their  only  shelter,  with  the  sound  of  its 
waters  for  their  only  reveille."  One  of  Power's  own  coun- 
trymen, many  years  before,  and  no  doubt  unknown  to  the 
actor,  had  realized  to  the  full  this  romantic  longing.  I  do 
not  recall  that  that  early  visit  has  been  made  note  of,  in  our 
local  annals,  but  it  may  appropriately  be  put  on  record  here, 
especially  as  it  concerns  still  another  visit,  which  likewise 
merits  a  place  in  our  Niagara  chronicling. 

Let  us  fancy  ourselves,  then,  back  in  the  year  1789.  Al- 
though the  Revolution  was  over,  and  the  Treaty  of  Paris 
had  been  signed  for  half  a  dozen  years,  the  British  still  held 
control  of  both  sides  of  the  Niagara,  and  maintained  gar- 
risons at  Fort  Niagara,  Fort  Schlosser  (now  included  in  the 
city  of  Niagara  Falls),  and  Fort  Erie.  Buffalo  did  not 
exist ;  though  for  nine  years  the  Senecas,  refugees  from  the 


218  TWO   EARLY   VISITORS. 

Genesee  country,  had  had  their  villages  on  Buffalo  Creek; 
and  for  five  years  the  house  built  by  Ezekiel  Lane  and  his 
son-in-law  Martin  Middaugh,  the  first  white  settlers  on  the 
site  of  the  present  city,  had  stood  near  the  present  Exchange 
street,  east  of  Washington,  not  far  from  the  bank  of  Little 
Buffalo  Creek. 

This  in  very  brief  was  the  local  situation  when  there 
came  into  the  region  one  who  after  enjoying  to  the  full  the 
wilderness  life  as  he  found  it  here,  was  to  pass  to  a  life  of 
trouble  and  a  most  lamentable  end.  This  was  Lord  Edward 
Fitzgerald.  I  am  not  to  write  his  biography  and  so  refer 
the  reader  at  once  to  the  story  of  Lord  Edward's  life  and 
death,  as  written  eighty  years  ago  by  Thomas  Moore.  For 
our  purpose  it  is  enough  to  recall  that  he  was  the  first  son 
of  the  first  Duke  of  Leinster,  and  was  born  near  Dublin  in 
1763.  Given  a  military  training,  we  find  him  serving  with 
his  regiment,  the  iQth,  in  the  American  Revolution.  As 
aide-de-camp  to  Lord  Rawdon,  he  distinguished  himself  in 
numerous  engagements,  particularly  in  the  battle  of  Eutaw 
Springs,  South  Carolina,  where  he  was  wounded,  Sept.  8, 
1781.  His  biographer  finds  it  "not  a  little  striking  that  there 
should  have  been  engaged,  at  this  time,  on  opposite  sides, 
in  America,  two  noble  youths,  Lafayette  and  Lord  Edward 
Fitzgerald,  whose  political  principles  afterwards  so  entirely 
coincided."  After  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis,  Lord  Ed- 
ward was  sent,  early  in  1783,  to  the  West  Indies,  where  he 
served  on  the  staff  of  General  O'Hara.  For  the  next  few 
years  he  had  a  varied  service, in  different  parts  of  the  world; 
and  in  1788  again  came  out  to  America  to  join  the  54th 
regiment  in  New  Brunswick.  He  had  reached  the  rank  of 
major,  and  according  to  report,  was  much  esteemed  in  the 
service.  A  sergeant-major  of  the  54th  at  this  time  was  the 
afterwards  celebrated  William  Cobbett.  In  the  latter's  once 


TWO   EARLY   VISITORS.  219 

famous  "Advice  to  Young  Men"  he  says  that  he  got  his  dis- 
charge from  the  army  "by  the  great  kindness  of  poor  Lord 
Edward  Fitzgerald" ;  and  he  tells  how,  on  dining  one  day 
with  Mr.  Pitt,  on  being  asked  by  that  statesman  some 
questions  respecting  his  former  officer,  he  answered  that 
"Lord  Edward  was  a  most  humane  and  excellent  man,  and 
the  only  really  honest  officer  he  ever  knew  in  the  army." 
An  old  portrait  of  him  (from  which  the  frontispiece  of 
Moore's  life  of  him  was  engraved),  happily  endorses  this 
verdict,  and  shows  him  as  a  bright-faced,  alert,  good- 
humored  youth,  the  very  embodiment  of  Irish  wit  and  en- 
ergy. 

This  may  serve  as  a  sufficient  introduction  to  his  Lord- 
ship the  major,  who  with  a  fellow  officer  and  a  servant,  in 
February  and  March,  1789,  walked  from  Fredericton  to 
Quebec,  175  miles  through  the  wilderness.  "We  were  thirty 
days  on  our  march,  twenty-six  of  which  we  were  in  the 
woods,  and  never  saw  a  soul  but  our  own  party."  In  April 
of  that  year,  in  high  health  and  spirits,  he  set  out  from 
Quebec,  bound  for  Ireland,  by  way  of  Niagara  Falls,  the 
Mississippi  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico!  Contemplating  the 
adventure,  before  leaving  Quebec,  he  wrote  home  that  he 
supposed  they  would  think  him  mad ;  but  his  heart  was  set 
on  it.  "It  will  not  be  very  expensive,  particularly  as  I  go  all 
the  first  part  with  a  relief  of  troops  that  are  proceeding  up 
as  far  as  Lake  Superior.  I  am  not  quite  determined 
whether  I  will  go  up  quite  so  far,  perhaps  only  as  far  as 
Detroit,  from  that  to  the  Fort  Pitt,  and  from  thence  to  the 
Ohio,  and  down  it  to  the  Mississippi." 

This  was  the  tour  on  which  Lord  Edward  set  out,  to- 
wards the  end  of  April.  By  June  ist  he  was  on  the  Niagara, 
where  he  wrote  the  following  letter  to  his  mother : 


220  TWO   EARLY   VISITORS. 

"FORT  ERIE,  June  i,  1789. 

"DEAREST  MOTHER:  I  am  just  come  from  the  Falls  of 
Niagara.  To  describe  them  is  impossible.  I  stayed  three 
days  admiring,  and  was  absolutely  obliged  to  tear  myself 
away  at  last.  As  I  said  before,  to  describe  them  would  be 
impossible: — Homer  could  not  in  writing,  nor  Claude 
Lorraine  in  painting:  your  own  imagination  must  do  it. 
The  immense  height  and  noise  of  the  Falls,  the  spray  that 
rises  to  the  clouds — in  short,  it  forms  all  together  a  scene 
that  is  well  worth  the  trouble  of  coming  from  Europe  to 
see.  Then,  the  greenness  and  tranquility  of  everything 
about,  the  quiet  of  the  immense  forests  around,  compared 
with  the  violence  of  all  that  is  close  to  the  Falls, — but  I 
will  not  go  on,  for  I  should  never  end.  .  .  . 

"I  set  out  tomorrow  for  Detroit:  I  go  with  one  of  the 
Indian  chiefs,  Joseph  Brant,  he  that  was  in  England.  We 
have  taken  very  much  to  one  another.  I  shall  entertain  you 
very  much  with  his  remarks  on  England,  and  the  English, 
while  he  was  there.  Instead  of  crossing  Lake  Erie  in  a 
ship,  I  go  in  canoes  up  and  down  rivers.  In  crossing  Lake 
Ontario,  I  was  as  sick  as  at  sea, — so  you  may  guess  I  prefer 
canoeing; — besides  my  friend  Joseph  always  travels  with 
company;  and  we  shall  go  through  a  number  of  Indian 
villages.  If  you  only  stop  an  hour,  they  have  a  dance  for 
you.  They  are  delightful  people;  the  ladies  charming,  and 
with  manners  that  I  like  very  much,  they  are  so  natural. 
Notwithstanding  the  life  they  lead,  which  would  make  most 
women  rough  and  masculine,  they  are  as  soft,  meek,  and 
modest  as  the  best  brought  up  girls  in  England.  At  the 
same  time,  they  are  coquettes  au  possible.  Conceive  the 
manners  of  Mimi  in  a  poor  squaw,  that  has  been  carrying 
packs  in  the  woods  all  her  life. 

"I  must  make  haste  and  finish  my  letter,  for  I  am  just 
going  to  set  off.  I  shall  be  at  Michilimackinack  in  nineteen 
days.  My  journey  then  will  be  soon  over,  for  from  that  I 
shall  soon  reach  the  Mississippi,  and  down  it  to  New 
Orleans,  and  then  to  my  dearest  mother  to  Frescati,  to 
relate  all  my  journey  in  the  little  book-room.  I  shall  then 


TWO   EARLY   VISITORS.  221 

be  happy.  Give  my  love  to  all.  I  think  often  of  you  all 
in  these  wild  woods : — they  are  better  than  rooms.  Ireland 
and  England  will  be  too  little  for  me  when  I  go  home.  If 
I  could  carry  my  dearest  mother  about  with  me,  I  should 
be  completely  happy  here." 

A  subsequent  letter  may  be  briefly  quoted,  to  complete 
the  story  in  its  local  bearing: 

"DETROIT,  June  20  [1789]. 

"Mv  DEAREST  MOTHER:  It  is  so  hot  I  can  hardly  hold 
the  pen.  My  hand  trembles  so,  you  will  be  hardly  able  to 
read  my  letter.  My  journey  quite  answered  my  expecta- 
tions. I  set  out  tomorrow  for  Michillimackinack,  and  then 
down  the  Mississippi.  I  am  in  rude  health.  As  soon  as  I 
get  to  the  Mississippi  I  reckon  my  journey  half  over.  I  can 
say  no  more,  for  really  it  is  too  hot  for  anything  but  lying 
on  a  mat.  Entre  nous,  I  am  in  a  little  sorrow,  as  I  am  to 
part  tomorrow  with  a  fellow-traveller  who  has  been  very 
pleasant  and  taken  great  care  of  me :  Les  plus  courtes  folies 
sont  les  meilleures.  I  have  been  adopted  by  one  of  the 
Nations,  and  am  now  a  thorough  Indian." 

According  to  Tom  Moore,  this  adoption  took  place  at 
Detroit,  through  the  medium  of  a  chief  of  the  Six  Nations, 
David  Hill,  by  whom  he  was  formally  inducted  into  the 
Bear  Clan.  A  document  recording  the  conferment  of  this 
"wild  honour,"  as  Moore  phrases  it,  was  preserved  among 
Lord  Edward's  papers;  and  is,  in  alleged  Indian  and 
English,  as  follows : 

"Waghgongh  Sen  non  Pryer 

Ne  nen  Seghyrage  n&  i 

Ye  Sayats  Eghnidal 

Ethonayyere 

DAVID  HILL 

Karonghyontye 

Tyogh  Saghnontyon 

21  June  1789. 


222  TWO   EARLY   VISITORS. 

"I,  David  Hill,  chief  of  the  Six  Nations,  give  the  name 
of  Eghnidal  to  my  friend  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,  for 
which  I  hope  he  will  remember  me  as  long  as  he  lives. 

"The  name  belongs  to  the  Bear  Tribe." 

Captain  David  Hill's  letter  purports  to  be  in  the  Mohawk, 
but  the  orthography  as  given  by  Moore  is  very  erroneous. 
According  to  O.  H.  Marshall,  who  commented  on  this 
letter,  "Karong  hyontye"  is  the  Indian  name  of  Captain 
David.  "Tyogh  Saghnontyon"  is  the  name  of  Detroit, 
where  the  letter  was  written. 

Lord  Edward's  correspondence  says  no  more  of  the 
Niagara  region,  but  it  has  not  told  the  whole  of  his  experi- 
ences hereabouts.  For  further  particulars  I  turn  to  a 
young  woman's  journal  of  1789,  which  although  published 
some  thirty  odd  years  ago,  has  never  been  made  use  of, 
so  far  as  I  am  aware,  in  connection  with  the  letters  of  Lord 
Edward  Fitzgerald,  to  illustrate  conditions  on  the  Niagara 
soon  after  the  Revolution. 

The  young  woman  was  Ann  Powell,  daughter  of  John 
Powell  of  Boston,  in  which  town  she  was  born  in  1769. 
When  she  met  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,  and  with  him 
visited  the  site  of  Buffalo  in  1789,  she  was  twenty  years  old, 
he  twenty-six.  The  Powell  genealogy  shows  that  her  an- 
cestors were  of  a  distinguished  line  in  Colonial  Massachu- 
setts. Her  grandfather  Powell  came  from  England  as 
secretary  of  Lieutenant  Governor  Dummer,  and  married 
his  sister,  Ann  Dummer.  Their  eldest  son,  William 
Dummer  Powell,  married  Janet  Grant,  sister  of  Sir  Alex- 
ander Grant.  They  were  a  Loyalist  family,  and  about  1775, 
being  declared  alien,  left  Boston  for  Canada.  William 
Dummer  Powell,  eldest  son  of  the  John  who  was  Dummer's 
secretary,  became  Chief  Justice  of  Canada.  At  the  time 
we  are  considering,  he  had  been  appointed  a  Puisne  Judge ; 


TWO   EARLY   VISITORS.  223 

and  it  was  in  connection  with  his  duties  in  that  office  that 
the  journey  from  Montreal  to  Detroit  was  undertaken. 
Thanks  to  his  young  sister,  Ann,  who  accompanied  him 
and  kept  a  journal,  we  have  a  glimpse  of  our  locality  not 
elsewhere  afforded.  This  journal,  with  a  few  unimportant 
pages  omitted,  follows: 

FROM  THE  JOURNAL  OF  ANN  POWELL. 

TOUR    FROM    MONTREAL    TO   DETROIT    IN    1789 — VISIT   TO    THE 
SITE   OF   BUFFALO   WITH    LORD   EDWARD   FITZGERALD. 

When  I  talked  of  keeping  a  journal  from  Montreal  to 
Detroit,  I  was  not  aware  of  the  difficulties  attending  the 
journey.  I  expected  it  would  be  tedious,  and  thought 
writing  would  be  a  very  pleasant  employment,  and  so  it 
might  have  proved,  had  it  been  practicable,  but  the  oppor- 
tunities for  writing  were  so  few,  that  I  found  it  would  be 
impossible  to  keep  a  journal  with  any  degree  of  regularity, 
so  I  left  it  wholly  alone,  and  trusted  to  my  memory  (which 
never  deserved  such  a  compliment)  for  recalling  whatever 
was  worth  communicating. 

We  left  Montreal  on  the  nth  of  May,  1789,  with  a  large 
party  of  our  friends,  who  paid  us  the  compliment  of  seeing 
us  the  first  stage,  where  we  took  a  farewell  dinner. 

We  then  went  to  our  boats;  one  was  fitted  up  with  an 
awning  to  protect  us  from  the  weather,  and  held  the  family 
and  bedding.  It  was  well  filled,  eighteen  persons  in  all,  so 
you  may  suppose  we  had  not  much  room;  as  it  happened 
that  was  of  no  consequence,  it  was  cold  on  the  water,  and 
we  were  glad  to  sit  close.  This  mode  of  traveling  is  very 
tedious ;  we  are  obliged  to  keep  along  the  shore  and  go  on 
very  slowly. 

The  first  night  we  slept  at  the  house  of  a  "Habitan," 
who  turned  out  with  his  family,  to  give  us  the  best  room, 
where  we  spread  our  beds  and  slept  in  peace.  I  entertained 
myself  with  looking  at  the  Canadian  family  who  were  eating 
their  supper,  saying  their  prayers,  and  conversing  at  the 
same  time. 


224  TWO   EARLY   VISITORS. 

The  next  day  we  reached  a  part  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
where  our  boats  were  obliged  to  be  unloaded,  and  taken 
through  a  Lock,  the  rapids  being  too  strong  to  pass ;  these 
rapids  were  the  first  of  any  consequence  that  I  had  seen. 
Perhaps  you  do  not  know  what  I  mean  by  a  rapid;  it  is 
when  the  water  runs  with  swiftness  over  large  rocks,  every 
one  of  which  forms  a  cascade,  and  the  river  here  is  all  a 
bed  of  rocks.  There  is  no  describing  the  grandeur  of  the 
water  when  thrown  into  this  kind  of  agitation;  the  sea 
after  a  tempest  is  smooth  to  it. 

My  brother  had  traveled  the  road  before,  and  knew  the 
people,  and  the  distance  from  house  to  house. 

This  part  of  the  country  has  been  settled  since  the  Peace, 
and  it  was  granted  to  the  troops  raised  in  America  during 
the  war.  We  went  from  a  Colonel  to  a  Captain,  and  from 
a  Captain  to  a  Major.  They  have  most  of  them  built  good 
houses,  and  with  the  assistance  of  their  half  pay,  live  very 
comfortably. 

One  night  we  reached  the  house  of  an  old  servant  of 
Mrs.  Powell's;  the  children  were  delighted  to  see  her,  and 
I  was  well  pleased  to  view  a  new  scene  of  domestic  life. 
This  woman,  it  seems,  had  married  a  disbanded  soldier, 
who  had  a  small  lot  of  land,  where  they  immediately  went 
to  live,  and  cultivated  it  with  so  much  care,  that  in  a  few 
years  they  were  offered  in  exchange  for  it,  a  farm  twice  its 
value,  to  which  they  had  just  removed,  and  were  obliged 
to  live  some  time  in  a  temporary  log  house,  which  consisted 
only  of  one  room,  in  which  was  a  very  neat  bed,  where  a 
lovely  babe  of  three  months  old,  lay  crowing  and  laughing 
by  itself.  A  large  loom  was  on  one  side,  on  the  other  all 
the  necessary  utensils  of  a  famly,  everythng  perfectly  clean. 

Small  as  the  place  was,  we  chose  to  stay  all  night,  so 
while  Mrs.  Powell  was  giving  orders  for  arranging  the  beds, 
my  brother  and  I  walked  out  to  enjoy  a  very  fine  evening. 
The  banks  of  the  river  were  very  high  and  woody,  the 
moon  shone  bright  through  the  trees,  some  Indians  were  on 
the  river  taking  fish  with  harpoons,  a  mode  of  fishing  I 
had  never  seen  before.  They  make  large  fires  in  their 


TWO   EARLY    VISITORS.  225 

canoes,  which  attract  the  fish  to  the  surface  of  the  water, 
when  they  can  see  by  the  fire  to  strike  them.  The  number 
of  fires  moving  on  the  water  had  a  pretty  and  singular 
effect. 

When  we  returned  to  the  house,  we  found  the  whole 
floor  covered  with  beds.  The  man  and  woman  of  the  house, 
with  their  children,  had  retired  to  their  own  room,  and  left 
us  to  manage  as  we  pleased.  A  blanket  was  hung  before 
my  mattress,  which  I  drew  aside  to  see  how  the  rest  were 
accommodated.  My  brother  and  sister,  myself,  five  chil- 
dren, and  two  maid  servants  made  up  the  group ;  a  blazing 
fire  (not  in  the  chimney,  for  there  was  none,  but  in  one 
side  of  the  room,  which  was  opened  at  the  top  to  let  out 
the  smoke,  and  gave  us  a  fine  current  of  air)  showed  every 
object  distinctly. 

I  was  in  a  humor  to  be  easily  diverted,  and  found  a 
thousand  things  to  laugh  at.  It  struck  me  that  we  were 
like  a  strolling  party  of  players. 

At  night  we  always  drest  a  dinner  for  the  next  day. 
When  we  were  disposed  to  eat  it,  the  cloth  was  laid  in  the 
boat,  and  our  table  served  up  with  as  much  decency  as  could 
be  expected,  if  we  could  be  contented  with  cold  provisions. 
Not  so  our  sailors;  they  went  on  shore  and  boiled  their 
pots,  and  smoked  their  pipes. 

One  day  we  happened  to  anchor  at  a  small  Island,  where 
the  men  themselves  had  some  difficulty  in  climbing  the 
banks,  which  were  very  steep.  I  finished  my  dinner  before 
the  rest  of  the  party,  and  felt  an  inclination  to  walk.  I 
took  one  of  the  maids  and  made  one  of  the  men  help  us  up 
the  bank;  we  strolled  to  the  other  side  of  the  Island,  and 
when  we  turned  round,  saw  the  whole  of  the  ground  covered 
with  fire.  The  wind  blew  fresh,  and  the  dried  leaves  had 
spread  it  from  where  the  people  were  cooking.  We  had 
no  alternative,  so  were  obliged  to  make  the  best  of  our  way 
back.  I  believe  we  took  very  few  steps,  for  neither  of  us 
had  our  shoes  burnt  through. 

The  weather  was  so  fine  that  we  ventured  to  sleep  out, 
and  I  liked  it  so  much  that  I  regretted  that  we  had  ever 


226  TWO   EARLY   VISITORS. 

gone  into  the  house ;  it  is  the  pleasantest  vagabond  life  you 
can  imagine. 

We  stopt  before  sunset,  when  a  large  fire  was  instantly 
made,  and  tea  and  chocolate  were  prepared ;  while  we  were 
taking  it  the  men  erected  a  tent ;  the  sails  of  the  boat  served 
for  the  top,  and  blankets  were  fastened  round  the  sides; 
in  a  few  minutes  they  had  made  a  place  large  enough  to 
spread  all  our  beds,  where  we  slept  with  as  much  comfort 
as  I  ever  did  in  any  chamber  in  my  life.  It  was  our  own 
fault  if  we  did  not  choose  a  fine  situation  to  encamp. 

You  can  scarcely  conceive  a  more  beautiful  scene  than 
was  one  night  exhibited.  The  men  had  piled  up  boughs  of 
trees  for  a  fire,  before  our  tent,  till  they  made  a  noble  bon- 
fire. In  the  course  of  the  evening  it  spread  more  than  half 
a  mile;  the  ground  was  covered  with  dry  leaves  which 
burnt  like  so  many  lamps,  with  the  fire  running  up  the 
bushes  and  trees.  The  whole  formed  the  most  beautiful 
illumination  you  can  form  an  idea  of.  The  children  were 
in  ecstasies,  running  about  like  so  many  savages,  and  our 
sailors  were  encamped  near  enough  for  us  to  hear  them 
singing  and  laughing. 

We  had,  before  we  left  Montreal,  heard  of  his  Majesty's 
recovery,  so  if  you  please  you  can  set  this  all  down  as 
rejoicings  on  that  account,  though  I  doubt  whether  it  once 
occurred  to  our  minds,  yet  we  are  a  very  loyal  people. 

On  the  tenth  day  we  reached  Kingston;  it  is  a  small 
town,  and  stands  on  a  beautiful  bay  at  the  foot  of  Lake 
Ontario.  The  moment  we  reached  the  wharf,  a  number  of 
people  came  down  to  welcome  us ;  a  gentleman  in  his  hurry 
to  hand  out  the  ladies,  brushed  one  of  the  children  into  the 
lake.  He  was  immediately  taken  out,  but  that  did  not  save 
his  Mother  a  severe  fright.  We  went  to  a  house  of  a  Mr. 
Forsyth,  a  young  bachelor,  who  very  politely  begged  we 
would  consider  it  as  our  own.  Here  we  staid  three  days, 
and  then  sailed  with  a  fair  wind  for  Niagara. 

At  Kingston  we  were  overtaken  by  two  officers  of  the 
artillery,  one  going  to  Niagara  the  other  to  Detroit.  They 
both  expressed  themselves  pleased  with  joining  our  party, 


TWO   EARLY   VISITORS.  227 

and  accepted  an  offer  my  brother  made  them,  to  cross  the 
Lake  in  a  vessel  appointed  for  him.  We  were  fifteen  where 
there  were  only  four  berths.  When  the  beds  were  put  down 
at  night,  every  one  remained  in  the  spot  he  had  first  taken, 
for  there  was  no  moving  without  general  consent. 

One  night  after  we  had  lain  down  and  began  to  be  com- 
posed, Mrs.  Powell  saw  one  of  the  maids  standing  where 
she  had  been  making  the  children's  beds,  and  asked  her 
why  she  staid  there?  The  poor  girl  who  speaks  indifferent 
English  answered:  ''I  am  quazed,  Ma'am."  Sure  enough, 
she  was  wedged  in  beyond  the  power  of  moving  without 
assistance.  I  heard  a  great  laugh  among  the  gentlemen, 
who  were  divided  from  us  by  a  blanket  partition.  I  sup- 
pose they  were  "quazed"  too. 

Lake  Ontario  is  two  hundred  miles  over.  We  were  four 
days  crossing  it.  We  were  certainly  a  very  good  humoured 
set  of  people,  for  no  one  complained  or  seemed  rejoiced 
when  we  arrived  at  Niagara. 

The  fort  is  by  no  means  pleasantly  situated.  It  is  built 
close  upon  the  Lake,  which  gains  upon  its  foundations  so 
fast,  that  in  a  few  years  they  must  be  overflowed.  There, 
however,  we  passed  some  days  very  agreeably,  at  the  house 
of  Mr.  Hamilton.  We  received  the  most  polite  attentions 
from  Colonel  Hunter,  the  commanding  officer,  and  all  his 
officers.  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  had  been  some  months 
at  Niagara  before  us,  and  was  making  excursions  among 
the  Indians,  of  whose  society  he  seemed  particularly  fond. 
Joseph  Brant,  a  celebrated  Indian  chief,  lives  in  that  neigh- 
borhood. Lord  Edward  had  spent  some  days  at  his  house, 
and  seemed  charmed  with  his  visit.  Brant  returned  to 
Niagara  with  his  Lordship.  He  was  the  first,  and  indeed 
the  only  savage  I  ever  dined  at  table  with. 

As  the  party  was  large,  he  was  at  too  great  a  distance 
from  me  to  hear  him  converse,  and  I  was  by  no  means 
pleased  with  his  looks.  These  people  pay  great  deference 
to  rank;  with  them  it  is  only  obtained  by  merit.  They 
attended  Lord  Edward  from  the  house  of  one  Chief  to 
another,  and  entertained  him  with  dancing,  which  is  the 


228  TWO   EARLY    VISITORS. 

greatest  compliment  they  can  pay.  Short  as  our  stay  was 
at  Niagara,  we  made  many  acquaintances  we  were  sorry  to 
leave.  Several  gentlemen  offered  to  escort  us  to  the  land- 
ing, which  is  eight  miles  from  Fort  Erie  [Fort  Niagara]. 

There  the  Niagara  river  becomes  impassible,  and  all  the 
luggage  was  drawn  up  a  steep  hill  in  a  cradle,  a  machine  I 
never  saw  before.  We  walked  up  the  hill,  and  were  con- 
ducted to  a  good  garden  with  an  arbor  in  it,  where  we  found 
a  cloth  laid  for  dinner,  which  was  provided  for  us  by  the 
officers  of  the  post. 

After  dinner  we  went  on  seven  miles  to  Fort  Schlosher. 
The  road  was  good,  the  weather  charming,  and  this  was  the 
only  opportunity  we  should  have  of  seeing  the  Falls.  All 
our  party  collected  half  a  mile  above  the  Falls,  and  walked 
down  to  them.  I  was  in  raptures  all  of  the  way.  The  Falls 
I  had  heard  of  forever,  but  no  one  had  mentioned  the 
rapids.  For  half  a  mile  the  river  comes  foaming  down 
immense  rocks,  some  of  them  forming  cascades  30  or  40 
feet  high.  The  banks  are  covered  with  woods,  as  are  a 
number  of  the  Islands,  some  of  them  very  high  out  of  the 
water.  One  in  the  centre  of  the  river,  runs  out  into  a  point, 
and  seems  to  divide  the  Falls,  which  would  otherwise  be 
quite  across  the  river,  into  the  form  of  a  crescent. 

I  believe  no  mind  can  form  an  idea  of  the  immensity  of 
the  body  of  water,  or  the  rapidity  with  which  it  hurries 
down.  The  height  is  180  [ !]  feet,  and  long  before  it  reaches 
the  bottom,  it  loses  all  appearance  of  a  liquid.  The  spray 
rises  like  light  summer  clouds,  and  when  the  rays  of  the 
sun  are  reflected  through  it,  they  form  innumerable  rain- 
bows, but  the  sun  was  not  in  a  situation  to  show  the  effect 
when  we  were  there. 

One  thing  I  could  find  no  one  to  explain  to  me,  which 
is,  the  stillness  of  the  water  at  the  bottom  of  the  Falls;  it 
is  as  smooth  as  a  lake,  for  half  a  mile,  deep  and  narrow, 
the  banks  very  high  and  steep,  with  trees  hanging  over 
them.  I  was  never  before  sensible  of  the  power  of  scenery, 
nor  did  I  suppose  the  eye  could  carry  to  the  mind  such 
strange  emotions  of  pleasure,  wonder  and  solemnity. 


TWO   EARLY   VISITORS.  229 

For  a  time  every  other  impression  was  erased  from  my 
memory.  Had  I  been  left  to  myself,  I  am  convinced,  I 
should  not  have  thought  of  moving  whilst  there  was  light 
to  distinguish  objects.  With  reluctance  I  at  length  attended 
to  the  proposal  of  going,  determining  in  my  own  mind,  that 
when  I  returned,  I  would  be  mistress  of  my  own  time,  and 
stay  a  day  or  two  at  least. 

We  were  received  at  Fort  Schlosher  by  Mr.  Foster,  of 
the  6oth  Regiment,  one  of  the  most  elegant  young  men  I 
ever  saw.  Here  we  were  extremely  well  accommodated, 
and  much  pleased  with  the  house  and  garden.  I  never  saw 
a  situation  where  retirement  wore  so  many  charms. 

The  next  day  we  went  in  a  batteau  to  Fort  Erie.  When 
we  arrived  there  we  found  the  commanding  officer,  Mr. 
Boyd,  was  gone  in  a  party  with  Lord  Edward  and  Mr. 
Brisbane  to  the  other  side  of  the  river,  where  the  Indians 
were  holding  a  Council.  The  gentlemen  all  returned  in  the 
evening,  and  seemed  so  much  pleased  with  their  entertain- 
ment, that  when  they  proposed  our  going  with  them  the 
next  day,  we  very  readily  agreed  to  it.  I  thought  it  a 
peculiar  piece  of  good  fortune,  having  an  opportunity  of 
seeing  a  number  of  the  most  respectable  of  these  people 
collected  together. 

We  reached  the  spot  where  the  Council  began,  and  as  we 
passed  along,  saw  several  of  the  chiefs  at  their  toilets.  They 
sat  upon  the  ground  with  the  most  profound  gravity,  dress- 
ing themselves  before  a  small  looking-glass ;  for  they  are 
very  exact  in  fixing  on  their  ornaments,  and  not  a  little 
whimsical.  I  am  told  that  one  of  these  fellows  will  be  an 
hour  or  two  painting  his  face,  and  when  anyone  else  would 
think  him  sufficiently  horrible,  some  new  conceit  will  strike 
him,  and  he  will  rub  it  all  off,  and  begin  again. 

The  women  dress  with  more  simplicity  than  the  men,  at 
least  all  I  have  seen;  but  at  this  meeting  there  were  not 
many  of  the  fair  sex.  Some  old  squaws  who  sat  in  council, 
and  a  few  young  ones  to  dress  their  provisions ;  for  these 
great  men,  as  well  as  those  of  our  world,  like  a  good  dinner 
after  spending  their  lungs  for  the  good  of  their  country. 


230  TWO   EARLY   VISITORS. 

Some  women  we  saw  employed  in  taking  fish  in  a 
basket ;  a  gentleman  of  our  party  took  the  basket  from  one 
of  them,  and  tried  to  catch  the  fish  as  she  did,  but  failing, 
they  laughed,  at  his  want  of  dexterity.  One  young  squaw 
sat  in  a  tent  weaving  a  sort  of  worsted  garter  intermixed 
with  beads.  I  suppose  she  was  a  lady  of  distinction,  for 
her  ears  were  bored  in  four  different  places,  with  ear-rings 
in  them  all.  She  would  not  speak  English,  but  seemed  to 
understand  what  was  said  to  her. 

A  gentleman  introduced  Mrs.  Powell  and  me  to  her  as 
white  squaws,  begging  she  would  go  on  with  her  work,  as 
we  wished  to  see  how  it  was  done.  She  complied  immedi- 
ately, with  great  dignity,  taking  no  more  notice  of  us  than 
if  we  were  posts.  A  proof  of  her  good  breeding. 

We  then  went  up  a  steep  bank  to  a  very  beautiful  spot; 
the  tall  trees  were  in  full  leaf,  and  the  ground  covered 
with  wild  flowers.  We  were  seated  on  a  log  in  the  centre, 
where  we  could  see  all  that  passed. 

Upwards  of  200  chiefs  were  assembled  and  seated  in 
proper  order.  They  were  the  delegates  of  six  nations; 
each  tribe  formed  a  circle  under  the  shade  of  a  tree,  their 
faces  towards  each  other;  they  never  changed  their  places, 
but  sat  or  lay  on  the  grass  as  they  liked.  The  speaker  of 
each  tribe  stood  with  his  back  against  a  tree.  The  old 
women  walked  one  by  one  with  great  solemnity  and  seated 
themselves  behind  the  men ;  they  were  wholly  covered  with 
their  blankets,  and  sought  not  by  the  effect  of  ornaments  to 
attract,  or  fright,  the  other  sex,  for  I  cannot  tell  whether 
the  men  mean  to  make  themselves  charming,  or  horrible, 
by  the  pains  they  take  with  their  persons. 

On  seeing  this  respectable  band  of  matrons  I  was  struck 
with  the  different  opinions  of  mankind.  In  England  when 
a  man  grows  infirm  and  his  talents  are  obscured  by  age,  the 
wits  decide  upon  his  character  by  calling  him  an  old  woman. 
On  the  banks  of  Lake  Erie  a  woman  becomes  respectable 
as  she  grows  old,  and  I  suppose  the  greatest  compliment 
you  can  pay  a  young  hero,  is  that  he  is  as  wise  as  an  old 
woman,  a  good  trait  of  savage  understanding.  These  ladies 


TWO   EARLY    VISITORS.  231 

preserve  a  modest  silence  in  the  debates  (I  fear  they  are 
not  like  women  of  other  countries)  but  nothing  is  deter- 
mined without  their  advice  and  approbation. 

I  was  very  much  struck  with  the  figures  of  these  Indians 
as  they  approached  us.  They  are  remarkably  tall,  and 
finely  made,  and  walk  with  a  degree  of  grace  and  dignity 
you  can  have  no  idea  of.  I  declare  our  beaux  looked  quite 
insignificant  by  them ;  one  man  called  to  my  mind  some  of 
Homer's  finest  heroes. 

One  of  the  gentlemen  told  me  that  he  was  a  chief  of 
great  distinction  and  spoke  English,  and  if  I  pleased  he 
should  be  introduced  to  me.  I  had  some  curiosity  to  see 
how  a  chief  of  the  six  nations  would  pay  his  compliments, 
but  little  did  I  expect  the  elegance  with  which  he  addressed 
me.  The  Prince  of  Wales  does  not  bow  with  more  grace 
than  Captain  David.  He  spoke  English  with  propriety, 
and  returned  all  the  compliments  that  were  paid  him  with 
ease  and  politeness.  As  he  was  not  only  the  handsomest 
but  the  best  drest  man  I  saw,  I  will  endeavor  to  describe 
him. 

His  person  is  tall  and  fine  as  it  is  possible  to  conceive, 
his  features  handsome  and  regular,  with  a  countenance  of 
much  softness,  his  complexion  was  disagreeably  dark,  and 
I  really  believe  he  washes  his  face,  for  it  appeared  per- 
fectly clean,  without  paint;  his  hair  was  all  shaved  off 
except  a  little  on  the  top  of  his  head  to  fasten  his  ornaments 
to;  his  head  and  ears  painted  a  glowing  red;  round  his 
head  was  fastened  a  fillet  of  highly  polished  silver;  from 
the  left  temple  hung  two  straps  of  black  velvet  covered 
with  silver  beads  and  brooches.  On  the  top  of  his  head 
was  fixed  a  Foxtail  feather,  which  bowed  to  the  wind,  as 
did  a  black  one  in  each  ear;  a  pair  of  immense  earrings 
which  hung  below  his  shoulders  completed  his  head-dress, 
which  I  assure  you  was  not  unbecoming,  though  I  must 
confess  somewhat  fantastical. 

His  dress  was  a  shirt  of  colored  calico,  the  neck  and 
shoulders  covered  so  thick  with  silver  brooches  as  to  have 
the  appearance  of  a  net,  his  sleeves  much  like  those  the 


232  TWO   EARLY   VISITORS. 

ladies  wore  when  I  left  England,  fastened  about  the  arm, 
with  a  broad  bracelet  of  highly  polished  silver,  and  engraved 
with  the  arms  of  England.  Four  smaller  bracelets  of  the 
same  kind  about  his  wrists  and  arms ;  around  his  waist  was 
a  large  scarf  of  a  very  dark  colored  stuff,  lined  with  scarlet, 
which  hung  to  his  feet.  One  part  he  generally  drew  over 
his  left  arm  which  had  a  very  graceful  effect  when  he 
moved.  His  legs  were  covered  with  blue  cloth  made  to  fit 
neatly,  with  an  ornamental  garter  bound  below  the  knee. 
I  know  not  what  kind  of  a  being  your  imagination  will 
represent  to  you,  but  I  sincerely  declare  to  you,  that  alto- 
gether Captain  David  made  the  finest  appearance  I  ever 
saw  in  my  life. 

Do  not  suppose  they  were  all  dressed  with  the  same 
taste;  their  clothes  are  not  cut  by  the  same  pattern,  like 
the  beaux  of  England.  Every  Indian  is  dressed  according 
to  his  own  fancy,  and  you  see  no  two  alike;  even  their 
faces  are  differently  painted;  some  of  them  wear  their 
hair  in  a  strange  manner,  others  shave  it  entirely  off.  One 
old  man  diverted  me  extremely ;  he  was  dressed  in  a  scarlet 
coat,  richly  embroidered,  that  must  have  been  made  half  a 
century,  with  waistcoat  of  the  same,  that  reached  half  way 
down  his  thighs,  no  shirt  or  breeches,  but  blue  cloth  stock- 
ings. As  he  strutted  about  more  than  the  rest,  I  concluded 
that  he  was  particularly  pleased  with  his  dress,  and  with 
himself.  They  told  us  that  he  was  a  chief  of  distinction. 

We  only  staid  to  hear  two  speeches;  they  spoke  with 
great  gravity  and  no  action,  frequently  making  long  pauses 
for  a  hum  of  applause.  Lord  Edward  and  Mr.  Brisbane 
remained  with  them  all  night,  and  were  entertained  with 
dancing. 

We  were  detained  some  days  at  Fort  Erie  by  a  con- 
trary wind.  On  the  4th  of  June  as  we  were  drinking  the 
King's  health  like  good  loyal  subjects,  the  wind  changed 
and  we  were  hurried  on  board;  we  were  better  accommo- 
dated than  when  we  crossed  Lake  Ontario,  for  the  weather 
was  so  fine  that  the  gentlemen  all  slept  on  deck.  Lake 
Erie  is  280  miles  over,  we  were  five  days  on  our  passage. 


TWO   EARLY   VISITORS.  233 

The  river  Detroit  divides .  Lake  Erie  from  Lake  St. 
Clair,  which  is  again  separated  by  a  small  river  from  Lake 
Huron.  The  head  of  Lake  Erie  and  the  entrance  into  the 
river  Detroit  is  uncommonly  beautiful.  Whilst  we  were 
sailing  up  the  river  a  perverse  storm  of  rain  and  thunder 
drove  us  into  the  cabin,  and  gave  us  a  thorough  wetting. 
After  it  was  over  we  went  on  shore.  The  fort  lies  about 
half  way  up  the  river,  which  is  18  miles  in  length.  In 
drawing  the  line  between  the  British  and  American  pos- 
sessions, this  fort  was  left  within  their  lines;  a  new  town 
is  now  to  be  built  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  where  the 
Courts  are  held,  and  where  my  brother  must  of  course 
reside. 

As  soon  as  our  vessel  anchored,  several  ladies  and 
gentlemen  came  on  board;  they  had  agreed  upon  a  house 
for  us,  till  my  brother  could  meet  with  one  that  would  suit 
him,  so  we  found  ourselves  at  home  immediately. 

The  ladies  visited  us  in  full  dress,  though  the  weather 
was  boiling  hot.  What  do  you  think  of  walking  about  when 
the  Thermometer  is  above  90?  It  was  as  high  as  96  the 
morning  we  returned  our  visits. 

Whilst  we  staid  at  the  Fort,  several  parties  were  made 
for  us.  A  very  agreeable  one  by  the  65th  to  an  island  a 
little  way  up  the  river.  Our  party  was  divided  into  five 
boats,  one  held  the  music,  in  each  of  the  others  were  two 
ladies  and  as  many  gentlemen  as  it  could  hold. 

Lord  Edward  and  his  friend  arrived  just  time  enough 
to  join  us ;  they  went  round  the  Lake  by  land,  to  see  some 
Indian  settlements,  and  were  highly  pleased  with  their 
jaunt.  Lord  Edward  speaks  in  raptures  of  the  Indian  hos- 
pitality; he  told  me  one  instance  of  it,  which  would  reflect 
honor  on  the  most  polished  society.  By  some  means  or 
other,  the  gentlemen  lost  their  provisions,  and  were  entirely 
without  bread  in  a  place  where  they  could  get  none ;  some 
Indians  traveling  with  them,  had  one  loaf,  which  they 
offered  to  his  Lordship,  but  he  would  not  accept  it;  the 
Indians  gave  him  to  understand  that  they  were  used  to  do 
without  and  therefore  it  was  less  inconvenient  to  them; 


234  TWO   EARLY   VISITORS. 

they  still  refused,  and  the  Indians  then  disappeared,  and 
left  the  loaf  of  bread  in  the  road  the  travelers  must  pass, 
and  the  Indians  were  seen  no  more. 

Our  party  on  the  Island  proved  very  pleasant,  which 
that  kind  of  parties  seldom  do;  the  day  was  fine,  the 
country  cheerful  and  the  band  delightful.  We  walked  some 
time  in  the  shady  part  of  the  Island;  and  then  were  led 
to  a  bower  where  the  table  was  spread  for  dinner.  Every- 
thing here  is  on  a  grand  scale;  do  not  suppose  we  dined 
in  an  English  arbor.  This  one  was  made  of  forest  trees 
that  grew  in  a  circle,  and  it  was  closed  by  filling  up  the 
space  with  small  trees  and  bushes,  which  being  fresh  cut, 
you  could  not  see  where  they  were  put  together,  and  the 
bower  was  the  whole  height  of  the  trees  though  quite  closed 
at  the  top.  The  band  was  placed  without,  and  played  whilst 
we  were  at  dinner.  We  were  hurried  home  in  the  evening 
by  the  appearance  of  a  thunder  storm;  it  was  the  most 
beautiful  I  ever  remember  to  have  seen.  The  clouds  were 
collected  about  the  setting  sun,  and  the  forked  lightning 
was  darting  in  a  thousand  different  directions  from  it.  You 
can  form  no  idea  from  anything  you  have  seen  of  what  the 
lightning  is  in  this  country.  These  Lakes  I  believe  are  the 
nurseries  of  thunder  storms.  What  you  see  are  only 
stragglers  who  lose  their  strength  before  they  reach  you. 

The  locality  indicated  by  Miss  Powell  as  "the  other  side 
of  the  river,"  was,  obviously,  somewhere  in  the  present 
bounds  of  Buffalo,  probably  on  the  banks  of  Buffalo  Creek. 
When  they  "went  up  a  steep  bank  to  a  very  beautiful  spot," 
they  not  unlikely  gained  what  is  now  the  Terrace;  must 
have  been,  indeed,  as  the  neighborhood  of  the  Indian  vil- 
lages further  up  Buffalo  Creek  would  not  satisfy  Miss 
Powell's  description.  The  old  man  in  the  scarlet  coat  was 
Red  Jacket.  Miss  Powell's  narrative  is  corroborated  by 
various  official  documents.  A  letter  from  Joseph  Brant  and 
other  Indians  to  Governor  George  Clinton,  dated  "Cana- 
dague" — i.  e.,  Canandaigua — "3Oth  July,  1789,"  refers  to 


TWO   EARLY    VISITORS.  235 

this  council  of  Buffalo  Creek.  Red  Jacket  is  one  of  the 
signers  with  his  "mark."  (See  "Proceedings  of  the  Com- 
missioners of  Indian  Affairs,"  etc.,  edited  by  F.  B.  Hough, 
Albany,  1861.)  David  Hill,  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Six 
Nations,  is  referred  to  in  Stone's  "Life  of  Red  Jacket,"  ist 
ed.,  p.  95.  Miss  Powell  is  in  error  in  writing  that  Lord 
Edward  "had  been  some  months  at  Niagara"  before  she 
arrived.  His  letters  show  that  he  was  there  in  May ;  "some 
weeks"  was  perhaps  meant. 

Lord  Edward  finished  his  journey,  returning  to  Ireland 
by  way  of  New  Orleans,  much  as  planned.  He  has  no 
further  connection  with  the  Niagara  region  or  Buffalo,  but 
the  reader  should  have  some  further  glimpse  of  his  roman- 
tic career.  When  the  French  Revolution  broke  out  he 
supported  its  principles  and  in  1793  went  to  Paris,  where  he 
married  Pamela,  the  reputed  daughter  of  Louis  Philippe 
Joseph,  Duke  of  Orleans,  and  Madame  de  Genlis.  "On  his 
return  to  Ireland,  Fitzgerald  was  desirous  of  effecting  a 
separation  of  that  country  from  England,  and  induced  the 
French  Directory  to  furnish  him  with  a  fleet  and  troops. 
A  landing  was  attempted  on  several  occasions,  but  without 
success,  and  Fitzgerald  was  seized,  tried  and  condemned  to 
death."  While  he  lay  in  prison  suffering  from  his  wounds, 
a  soldier  friend  who  had  known  him  in  Charleston  during 
the  American  Revolution,  called  on  him  and  chanced  to 
speak  of  the  circumstances  under  which  they  had  first 
become  acquainted;  when  the  suffering  patriot  exclaimed: 
"Ah !  I  was  wounded  then  in  a  very  different  cause.  That 
was  in  fighting  against  liberty — this,  in  fighting  for  it." 
Before  the  time  set  for  his  execution  arrived,  Lord  Edward 
died  from  his  wounds,  June  4,  1798.  In  her  chaplet  of 
heroes  and  patriots,  Ireland  will  forever  keep  the  memory 
of  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald. 


HISTORICAL  ASSOCIATIONS   OF 
BUFFALO 


T  HAVE  been  asked  to  say  something  on  the  historical 
A  associations  of  Buffalo.  At  the  outset,  one  most  admit 
that  Buffalo,  like  many  American  towns,  has  paid  little 
attention  to  her  landmarks,  and  has  been  too  busy  developing 
material  interests  to  care  whether  or  not  anything  were  done 
to  preserve  the  historical  associations.  This  is  so  generally 
the  case  with  American  towns  that  it  need  call  for  no  par- 
ticular comment ;  but,  in  the  point  of  view  of  the  student  of 
history,  it  is  a  matter  of  regret  that  more  reminders  of  the 
past  are  not  preserved  for  the  future.  To  those  who  make 
the  study  of  history  a  business,  it  is  readily  obvious  that 
more  than  a  sentimental  value  attaches  to  reminders  of 
things  that  are  gone.  An  old  house ;  a  battlefield,  which  still 
shows  the  marks  of  conflict ;  a  venerable  tree,  in  the  shade  of 
which  a  treaty  or  a  council  were  held — any  of  these  things  is 
an  historical  document  quite  as  much  as  the  written  manu- 
script or  the  printed  page,  and  to  the  student  helps  make 
clear  and  vivid  conditions  of  the  past.  Some  things  of  this 
sort,  happily,  we  have  preserved  from  earlier  generations; 
and  of  some  occurrences  of  which  all  trace  is  gone  we  are 
able  to  determine  the  original  site,  so  that  after  all,  in  some 
fashion,  we  can  still  read  the  book  of  Buffalo  in  its  to- 
pography and  along  its  water-front  to  pretty  good  purpose. 
There  are  two  ways  of  studying  local  history:  one  way 
contents  itself  with  a  mere  determination  of  dates  and  sites. 


238  ASSOCIATIONS  OF  BUFFALO. 

Though  this  service  has  its  value,  I  confess  it  scarcely 
appeals  to  me.  Another  aspect  of  local  history,  which  I 
think  is  the  more  useful,  is  that  in  which  we  see  its  relations 
to  the  general  history  of  our  country.  In  this  last  relation, 
Buffalo  is,  perhaps,  the  least  historic  point  on  the  Niagara 
frontier.  The  history  of  our  town  as  a  white  man's  settle- 
ment runs  back  scarcely  more  than  a  century;  but  the 
history  of  the  Niagara  river  and  of  the  lakes  which  it  joins 
goes  back  almost  two  centuries  farther  and  belongs  to  that 
romantic  and  picturesque  chapter  of  American  development 
which  begins  with  the  forest  missions  of  the  Jesuits  and 
other  holy  orders,  shifts  soon  into  the  period  of  exploration, 
and,  finally,  after  a  time  of  strateg),  of  forest- fort  building 
and  of  wilderness  campaigns,  changes  again  from  the 
domain  of  the  French  to  the  rule  of  the  English.  In  all  the 
long  conflict  of  the  old  French  war,  ending  on  our  frontier 
in  1759,  and  in  all  the  troubled  years  that  followed,  down 
to  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  our  river  and  lake  bore  an 
important  part.  But  there  was  no  Buffalo,  nor,  indeed,  did 
the  site  of  Buffalo  figure  to  any  extent  in  these  early  annals 
of  the  region. 

I  am  to  confine  myself  to  the  present  city.  A  portion  of 
it  was  the  seat  of  Seneca  villages,  two  or  three  of  which 
may  still  be  traced  by  experts  on  the  banks  of  the  Buffalo 
and  Cazenovia  creeks.  Local  archaeologists  also  tell  us  that 
within  the  present  area  of  Delaware  Park  they  find  remains 
of  Indian  village  occupancy  and  burial.  The  motto  which 
is  engraved  on  a  lintel  in  the  Historical  Building,  "Other 
council  fires  were  here  before  ours,"  is  perhaps  literally 
true,  though  it  is  little  more  than  tradition  which  fixes  upon 
the  banks  of  the  Scajaquada  in  the  vicinity  of  that  building 
a  former  abiding-place  of  the  Senecas. 

There  is  more  definiteness  about  the  tradition  connected 


ASSOCIATIONS  OF  BUFFALO.  239 

with  a  stream  at  the  other  extremity  of  Buffalo.  Smoke's 
creek,  whose  course  into  Lake  Erie  has,  in  recent  years, 
been  well-nigh  obliterated  by  great  steel  works  and  other 
buildings,  derives  its  name  from  the  Seneca  chief  known 
to  the  English  as  "Old  Smoke."  He  held  a  position  of 
peculiar  prominence  among  his  people,  is  said  to  have  been 
foremost  in  leading  them  against  the  American  settlers  at 
Wyoming,  and  was  buried  years  after  on  the  banks  of  the 
stream  which  bears  his  name.  South  Buffalo  has  many 
associations  with  the  Indians.  Here  lived  Red  Jacket,  who 
died  in  1830  and  was  buried  in  what  is  now  known  as  the 
"Old  Indian  Cemetery"  on  Buffam  street.  This  little  plot 
of  ground,  still  shaded  by  fine  old  oaks  and  walnuts,  was 
the  burial-place  of  many  of  the  Seneca  Nation,  prominent 
during  the  Revolution  and  in  the  early  years  of  the  ipth 
century.  Here,  too,  was  buried  Mary  Jemison,  the  white 
woman,  whose  life  of  captivity  among  the  Indians  is  one  of 
the  most  famous  stories  in  our  local  history.  The  remains  of 
Mary  Jemison  were  removed  in  1874  to  Glen  Iris,  and  the 
bones  of  Red  Jacket  and  other  Seneca  chiefs  were  re- 
interred  in  Forest  Lawn  Cemetery  by  the  Buffalo  Historical 
Society  in  1884  and  1894.  The  old  Indian  bury  ing-ground 
has  now  been  added  to  the  park  system  of  Buffalo  and  let 
us  hope  will  be  preserved  with  its  fine  trees  for  future 
generations.  Near  by  was  formerly  the  Indian  Mission 
Church,  built  1826,  abandoned  1843.  What  is  now  known 
as  Indian  Church  avenue  crosses  its  former  site.  Several 
other  points  in  this  vicinity  are  of  interest  to  the  student 
of  the  Seneca  Indians  and  their  former  relations  to  the 
people  of  Buffalo. 

Two  or  more  council  houses  have  at  different  times  stood 
on  or  near  the  banks  of  Buffalo  creek,  the  last  one  probably 
being  not  far  from  the  present  site  of  the  International 


240  ASSOCIATIONS   OF   BUFFALO. 

Railway  Company's  car-house  on  Seneca  street,  near  its 
junction  with  Elk.  But  perhaps  the  region  has  no  associa- 
tions of  more  importance  than  those  which  cluster  around 
the  old  mission  house  still  standing  on  Buffam  street.  Built 
in  1833,  it  is  still  in  good  preservation,  with  heavy  hewn 
black  walnut  beams  that  bid  fair  to  stand  for  many  a  year 
to  come.  In  this  house,  from  1833  to  1844,  dwelt  the  Rev. 
Asher  Wright,  missionary  to  the  Senecas,  and  his  gifted 
and  devoted  wife.  Here,  in  1839,  was  set  up  the  Mission 
Press,  on  which,  in  the  Seneca  language,  from  specially 
made  type,  were  printed  portions  of  the  Scriptures,  hymnals, 
spelling  books,  and  Seneca  lexicon,  and  a  periodical,  the 
Mental  Elevator,  in  the  Seneca  tongue.  The  story  of  the 
work  carried  on  for  many  years  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wright 
is  perhaps  the  most  beautiful  record  of  disinterested  devo- 
tion to  the  welfare  of  others  to  be  found  in  the  annals  of 
Buffalo. 

There  are  many  places  within  the  city  limits  which  have 
associations,  more  or  less  important,  with  the  Seneca 
Indians.  Most  of  these  need  not  be  touched  on  in  a  brief 
sketch  like  the  present.  But  the  reader  whose  interest  is  at 
all  drawn  to  this  subject  will  do  well  some  pleasant  day  to 
stroll  through  Forest  Lawn  Cemetery.  He  will  note  the 
bronze  statue  erected  to  Red  Jacket  and  his  associates ;  but 
he  is  not  so  apt  to  have  his  attention  drawn  to  another  and 
older,  though  less  conspicuous,  monument,  nearer  the  east 
side  of  the  cemetery,  which  marks  the  resting  place  of  some 
twelve  hundred  bodies  that  were  removed  in  1851  from  the 
old  Franklin  Street  Cemetery — the  present  site  of  the  City 
Hall — to  the  then  new  Forest  Lawn.  Among  these  remains 
were  those  of  Farmer's  Brother,  one  of  the  worthiest 
Senecas  of  whom  history  gives  us  record.  A  man  of  far 
higher  character  than  Red  Jacket,  he  proved  himself  the 


ASSOCIATIONS  OF  BUFFALO.  241 

staunch  friend  of  the  Americans,  and  fought  bravely  in 
their  cause  during  the  War  of  1812. 

Buffalo  was  a  poor  little  frontier  village  when  that  war 
began.  The  first  white  settlement  on  Buffalo  creek  was, 
apparently,  in  1784;  and  there  were  squatters,  frontiers- 
men, and  renegades,  of  whose  presence  here  something  is 
known,  but  little  that  is  worth  our  thought,  until  the  village 
of  New  Amsterdam  was  surveyed  for  the  Holland  Land 
Company  by  their  agent,  Joseph  Ellicott,  in  1802.  The 
town  that  grew  up  in  the  next  decade  was  wiped  out  of 
existence  by  the  British  and  Indians  in  1813;  so  that, 
although  we  have  records  which  enable  us  to  fix  the  locality 
of  many  buildings  thus  destroyed,  there  now  exists  in  the 
city  no  structure  that  was  standing  in  the  village  of  Buffalo 
when  the  British  burned  it.  There  is  one  house,  now 
within  the  city  limits,  which  was  standing  at  the  time  of  the 
burning,  but  it  was  then  some  three  or  four  miles  north  of 
Buffalo  on  the  Williamsville  road.  Its  age  gives  it  distinc- 
tion, although  no  associations  of  great  importance  belong 
to  it.  It  was  built  in  1809  by  a  settler,  Zachariah  Griffin, 
and  the  story  goes  that  the  Indians  in  their  course  of 
destruction  with  musket  and  firebrand  were  too  much  over- 
come with  liquor  before  they  reached  this  house  to  do  any 
further  damage.  Oddly  enough,  it  still  stands,  sound  and 
comfortable,  as  a  residence,  although  its  exterior  appear- 
ance is  undoubtedly  changed.  It  is  No.  2485  Main  street, 
the  second  house  north  of  the  Belt  Line  crossing.  A  little 
one  story  house,  it  is  apparently  of  ordinary  frame  con- 
struction, but  behind  its  veranda  and  clapboards  are  still 
the  old  log  walls  of  the  original  structure. 

I  am  often  asked  what  is  the  oldest  house  in  Buffalo, 
and  it  may  be  worth  while  to  mention  a  few  which  are 
entitled  to  the  respect  we  accord  to  age.  The  Griffin  house, 


242  ASSOCIATIONS  OF  BUFFALO. 

already  mentioned,  is,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  entitled  to 
precedence.  There  are  but  two  or  three  in  the  county  of 
greater  age.  One  of  them  known  as  the  Evans  homestead, 
at  Williamsville,  dates  back,  in  its  oldest  part,  to  1797,  and 
has  the  associations  which  come,  not  only  from  long  occu- 
pancy by  a  family  prominent  in  the  history  of  our  county 
but  from  having  been  the  headquarters  of  General  Scott 
and  other  officers  during  the  War  of  1812.  Within  the  city, 
the  oldest  house  of  distinction  for  many  years  was  undoubt- 
edly that  known  as  the  Porter  mansion,  afterwards  the 
home  of  the  Hon.  Lewis  F.  Allen;  later,  stripped  of  its 
more  dignified  belongings,  serving  commercial  purposes  as 
part  of  an  automobile  factory,  and  finally  torn  down.  It 
was  formerly  No.  1192  Niagara  street,  between  the  street 
and  the  river,  a  short  distance  north  of  Ferry  street.  Its 
site  is  wholly  surrounded  now  by  factory  buildings;  one 
who  has  not  known  it  in  its  better  state  can  form  no  idea 
of  the  former  beauty  of  the  place — a  dignified,  ample  house, 
with  beautiful  grounds,  originally  sloping  to  the  banks  of 
the  river.  Built  in  1816  by  General  Porter,  afterwards 
Secretary  of  War,  it  was  for  many  years,  both  during  his 
ownership  and  that  of  Mr.  Allen,  often  the  scene  of  distin- 
guished hospitality,  and  many  famous  men  were  guests 
there.  Mr.  Allen's  nephew,  Grover  Cleveland,  was,  for  a 
time,  an  inmate  of  his  household.  It  is  a  pity  that  so  fine 
an  old  house,  with  so  many  historical  associations,  could 
not  have  been  preserved,  as  is  sometimes  the  case  with  old 
houses  in  other  towns,  for  a  museum  or  headquarters  of 
historical  or  antiquarian  organizations. 

There  are  but  few  buildings  in  the  city  whose  age  entitles 
them  to  distinction.  One  that  remained  a  comfortable 
home  until  recently  was  No.  1118  Niagara  street,  built  in 
1819  by  Col.  William  A.  Bird.  For  the  most  part,  buildings 


ASSOCIATIONS   OF  BUFFALO.  243 

that  may  be  called  old,  now  standing  in  the  city,  were  erected 
in  the  decade  of  the  30*5.  Two  or  three  residences  are 
known  of  an  earlier  period.  One  of  the  latest  to  go  was  No. 
37  Church  street,  understood  to  have  been  built  before  1830. 
The  Wilkeson  homestead,  on  Niagara  Square,  dates  from 
about  1825.  Two  or  three  years  before  this  date,  Joseph 
Ellicott  began  the  construction  of  a  home  for  himself  above 
High  street,  about  in  line  with  the  present  Washington 
street.  The  house  was  completed  by  others  and  passed 
through  various  ownerships;  finally,  some  twenty  odd 
years  ago,  being  bought  by  Mr.  John  C.  Glenny  and  moved 
in  two  sections  to  Amherst  street,  where  it  was  re-erected 
with  new  wings  and  some  other  alterations,  and  now  stands 
as  one  of  Buffalo's  most  beautiful  homes  and  the  only 
structure  in  Buffalo  directly  associated  with  the  founder 
of  the  city. 

While  we  have  lost  the  old  houses,  we  have  retained 
knowledge  of  their  sites.  Thanks  to  the  good  work  of  the 
Niagara  Frontier  Landmarks  Association,  suitable  tablets 
are  being  placed  on  numerous  sites  which  have  associations 
worth  preserving.  One  of  these,  on  the  Dun  Building, 
marks  the  site  of  Buffalo's  first  schoolhouse,  built  in  1807; 
another,  on  the  Public  Library,  recalls  the  fact  that  that 
site  was  occupied  by  two  courthouses ;  the  first  one  built  in 
1810,  destroyed  at  the  burning  of  Buffalo;  the  second  one 
enduring  until  1876.  This  spot,  the  center  of  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice  for  what  was  formerly  Niagara  county, 
and  after  the  division,  of  Erie  county,  covering  a  period  of 
over  half  a  century,  has  many  associations  connected  with 
the  leaders  of  the  bar,  judges,  and  lawyers  whose  names 
make  a  long  list  in  the  annals  of  our  city.  Two  Buffalo 
citizens,  who  became  Presidents  of  the  United  States, 
figured  for  many  years  in  the  practice  of  their  profes- 


244  ASSOCIATIONS  OF  BUFFALO. 

sion  in  the  old  courthouse — Millard  Fillmore  and  Grover 
Cleveland. 

One  house  which  was  spared  at  the  burning  of  Buffalo 
in  1813,  known  as  the  St.  John  House,  stood  on  ground 
now  covered  by  the  H.  A.  Meldrum  stores.  The  earlier  life 
of  the  town  was  active  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Terrace 
and  lower  Main  street,  and  well-nigh  every  foot  of  that 
region  has  its  associations  with  events  in  our  early  history. 
Some  of  these  sites,  no  doubt,  will  later  receive  attention  of 
the  Landmarks  Association. 

No  period  in  the  city's  history  is  more  distinctly  marked 
than  that  of  the  War  of  1812,  and  yet  I  do  not  know  of  a 
single  construction,  not  even  an  earthwork,  belonging  to 
that  time  which  now  endures.  There  are  many  points  along 
the  water  front,  from  Buffalo  creek  to  Lower  Black  Rock, 
which  have  stirring  associations  with  this  war.  The  sites 
of  several  batteries  are  known;  one,  which  saw  but  little 
service,  was  on  the  Terrace;  another  overlooked  the 
Niagara  from  the  edge  of  the  bluff  at  the  foot  of  Vermont 
street,  the  actual  site  being  utterly  obliterated  by  the  con- 
struction of  the  Erie  canal  in  1825 ;  but  now?  overlooked 
from  the  Front,  most  nearly  approached  a  short  distance 
south  of  the  memorial  to  the  I3th  U.  S.  Infantry,  in  the 
grounds  of  Fort  Porter.  Still  another  battery  was  on  a 
high  bank  just  south  of  the  foot  of  Massachusetts  street. 
As  in  the  case  of  the  battery  just  mentioned,  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Erie  canal  and  later  of  the  railroad,  which  cut 
away  much  of  the  original  bank,  left  only  empty  air  where 
formerly  was  this  defensive  work.  But  the  edge  of  the 
bluff  at  the  point  indicated  is  the  nearest  approach  on  the 
old  level.  No  place  in  Buffalo  commands  a  finer  view.  A 
point  of  public  resort,  a  memorial  tablet  should  sometime  be 


ASSOCIATIONS   OF  BUFFALO.  245 

placed  here,  where  it  would  be  seen  by  thousands,  and  add 
the  historic  to  the  present  scenic  interest. 

Many  points  on  the  Niagara  river  bank  have  associations 
with  this  period  we  are  considering.  Especially  storied  is 
the  site  of  the  present  International  Railway  Company's 
buildings,  opposite  School  street,  which  cover  the  ground 
where  formerly  stood  Fort  Adams,  otherwise  known  as 
Fort  Tompkins.  From  this  point  to  Breckenridge  street 
was  battleground  on  more  than  one  occasion.  At  the  mouth 
of  the  Scajaquada  creek,  on  the  south  side,  was  the  Sailors' 
Battery,  which  figured  in  several  hot  engagements.  Here, 
too,  during  the  war,  were  fitted  out  several  of  the  vessels 
which  constituted  the  fleet  with  which  Perry  won  his  glori- 
ous battle  on  Lake  Erie.  The  present  Niagara  street  bridge 
over  Scajaquada  creek  bears  a  tablet  which  records  the  fact 
that  thereabouts,  on  August  3,  1814,  was  fought  the  im- 
portant Battle  of  Black  Rock. 

We  have  touched  but  a  few  of  many  points  and  many 
associations  in  this  interesting  part  of  our  city.  Returning 
to  Fort  Porter,  we  find  associations  of  a  later  period,  though 
it  should  be  noted  that  Fort  Porter  itself  has  never  shared 
in  any  war,  although  the  old  magazine  which  was  destroyed 
some  years  ago — the  ruins  of  it  underlying  the  present 
parade-ground — was  a  picturesque  structure  and  looked  as 
though  it  might  have  many  war-time  associations.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  it  was  built  in  1846-47,  and,  although  it 
served  the  Government  for  some  years  as  a  storehouse,  for 
a  longer  period  it  stood  useless,  having  been  ruined  by  fire. 
No  sentimental  nor  historic  interest  attaches  to  it. 

Although  there  are  many  points  in  the  city  which  have 
associations  with  the  period  of  this  old  war,  I  do  not  now 
recall  any  visible  reminder  of  it  save  one — a  granite  boulder 
on  the  meadow  in  Delaware  Park,  which  marks  the  burial- 


246  ASSOCIATIONS  OF  BUFFALO. 

place  of  soldiers  who  died  of  camp  fever  during  that  war, 
in  the  barracks  hospital  which  stood  on  the  banks  of  Sca- 
jaquada  creek,  within  the  present  area  of  Forest  Lawn 
Cemetery.  Their  bones  were  removed  many  years  ago  to 
their  present  resting-place,  the  long  trench  in  which  they 
were  deposited  being  marked  at  either  end  with  a  willow 
tree;  these  willows  for  many  years  were  objects  of  dis- 
tinction and  beauty  in  the  park,  but  yielding  to  time  and 
storm,  they  disappeared  and  the  present  boulder  with  its 
tablet  was  placed  there  on  the  4th  of  July,  1896. 

This  is,  perhaps,  enough  by  way  of  reminder  of  this  old 
war.  Later  and  more  peaceful  years  have  their  associations 
as  well  as  those  of  conflict.  The  War  of  1812  destroyed 
Buffalo ;  the  building  of  our  harbor  and  the  opening  of  the 
Erie  canal  created  a  new  Buffalo.  The  grave  of  Samuel 
Wilkeson,  marked  by  a  rugged  monument,  shaded  by  fine 
trees,  in  a  quiet  part  of  Forest  Lawn,  should  be  known  to 
every  one  who  gives  a  thought  to  the  history  of  our  city; 
for  it  was  Judge  Wilkeson,  more  than  any  other  one  man, 
who  brought  about  conditions  which  made  possible  the  de- 
velopment into  Buffalo's  commercial  greatness.  As  the 
inscription  on  his  monument  records :  "Urbem  condidit." 

It  was  in  Judge  Wilkeson's  house,  then  newly  built,  that 
officials  and  prominent  men  of  the  State  gathered  after  the 
first  passage  westward  through  the  Erie  canal,  in  the  fall  of 
1825.  This  house,  already  referred  to,  has  not  only  been 
the  home  of  three  generations  of  men  and  women  prominent 
in  our  community  and  devoted  to  its  welfare,  but  has  been 
the  scene  of  many  gatherings  of  significance  in  Buffalo's 
history.  It  faces  Niagara  Square,  and  we  may  as  well  note 
that  this  spot  and  the  neighboring  Square,  now  bearing  the 
name  of  Lafayette,  have  both,  from  the  earliest  days  of  the 
town,  been  the  scene  of  countless  gatherings,  receptions, 


ASSOCIATIONS  OF  BUFFALO.  247 

and  events  of  note.  That  most  famous  of  early  executions 
in  Western  New  York — the  hanging  of  the  three  Thayers — 
took  place  in  Court  street,  a  few  rods  west  of  Niagara 
Square.  During  the  Civil  War,  the  Buffalo  troops  ren- 
dezvoused there  and  made  their  final  reviews  before  leaving 
for  camp.  Across  the  Square  from  the  Wilkeson  home- 
stead, was  for  many  years  the  residence  of  Millard  Fillmore. 
It  is  one  of  the  queer  things  in  our  history  that  this  Square, 
so  long  associated  with  a  President  of  the  United  States, 
contains  no  reminder  of  him,  his  former  home  even  being 
known  by  another  name  than  his ;  and  the  Square  in  these 
later  days  has  been  given  the  distinction  of  a  monument  to 
another  President,  whose  last  associations  with  Buffalo  were 
of  the  saddest,  but  who  is  not  known  to  have  any  associa- 
tions whatever  with  this  particular  spot. 

Probably  no  place  in  Buffalo  stands  for  more  history, 
both  local  and  general,  than  Lafayette  Square.  In  the  old 
days,  when  it  was  Courthouse  Square  and  little  more  than 
an  open  common,  it  was  the  scene  of  many  conventions, 
meetings,  celebrations,  and  speeches.  In  1825,  when  La- 
fayette made  his  visit  to  Buffalo,  he  was  given  a  reception 
at  the  Eagle  Tavern,  on  the  west  side  of  Main  street,  about 
where  the  Hudson  stores  now  are,  and  the  square  opposite 
was  named  in  his  honor.  The  only  national  political  con- 
vention ever  held  in  Buffalo — the  Free  Soil  Convention  of 
1848 — was  held  under  a  great  tent  in  this  Square.  There 
are,  too,  political  associations  of  an  early  period  that 
attached  to  the  block  below,  for  in  the  famous  Log  Cabin 
campaign  of  1840  Buffalo's  veritable  log  cabin  was  built  on 
the  northeast  corner  of  Main  and  Eagle  streets,  and  there 
the  citizens  met  to  harangue,  and  cheer  for  "Tippecanoe," 
and  drink  hard  cider. 

Following  the  political  associations  a  little  further,  it  is 


248  ASSOCIATIONS   OF  BUFFALO. 

well  to  remind  the  reader  of  at  least  one  other  site  in  our 
city  which  is  distinguished  because  of  the  people  who  have 
labored  there.  Where  now  stands  the  building  of  the 
Fidelity  Trust  Company,  formerly  stood,  since  1820,  the 
three  or  four  successive  buildings  owned  by  the  Messrs. 
Weed,  devoted  in  the  main  to  the  hardware  business.  In 
the  upper  stories  of  the  last  of  these  buildings,  which  was 
demolished  to  make  way  for  the  present  structure,  were, 
for  a  time,  the  offices  of  Millard  Fillmore,  and,  at  a  later 
period,  the  offices  of  Nathan  K.  Hall,  of  Grover  Cleveland, 
and  of  his  partner  Wilson  S.  Bissell.  The  old  Weed  block, 
therefore,  sent  out  two  Presidents  and  two  Postmasters- 
general. 

Not  all  our  historic  associations  relate  to  distant  years. 
An  event  of  very  recent  years,  which  must  have  mention, 
was  a  sequence  of  the  Pan-American  Exposition  and  the 
assassination  of  President  McKinley.  The  house  in  which 
President  McKinley  died,  September  14,  1901,  known  then 
as  the  Milburn  residence,  No.  1168  Delaware  avenue,  will 
always  possess  for  the  resident  and  the  visitor  a  melancholy 
interest.  His  successor,  Theodore  Roosevelt,  took  the  oath 
of  office  as  President  of  the  United  States,  in  the  home  of 
Mr.  Ansley  Wilcox,  at  No.  641  Delaware  avenue,  on  the 
day  Mr.  McKinley  died.  This  house,  by  the  way,  is  one  of 
the  most  "historic"  in  Buffalo.  Built  about  1840  as  the  com- 
mandant's headquarters  for  the  military  establishment 
known  as  Poinsett  Barracks,  it  originally  faced  to  the  east, 
looking  out  on  the  parade  ground,  which  extended  from 
Delaware  to  Main  street,  surrounded  by  buildings,  the  whole 
military  tract  covering  the  area  now  bounded  by  North, 
Main,  Allen  and  Delaware.  During  this  period,  one  part 
of  the  present  house  was  occupied  by  Dr.  Wood,  post 
surgeon,  whose  wife  was  a  daughter  of  Zachary  Taylor, 


ASSOCIATIONS   OF  BUFFALO.  249 

who  became  President  of  the  United  States  in  1850,  with 
Millard  Fillmore  as  his  Vice-president.  After  the  abandon- 
ment of  Poinsett  Barracks  and  the  conversion  of  the  tract 
to  other  uses,  the  house  now  standing  was  given  its  front 
approach  from  Delaware  avenue.  Additions  and  modern 
improvement  have  been  made,  but  the  main  part  of  the 
structure  is  still  the  original  old  house,  one  of  the  most 
dignified  and  attractive  residences  in  our  city. 

We  could  ramble  up  and  down  Main  street,  and  back 
and  forth  across  the  town  at  great  length,  recalling  this  and 
that  association,  passing  in  review  virtually  the  whole 
history  of  Buffalo.  There  are  many  associations  with  places 
which  offer  to  the  eye  no  reminder,  no  memorial,  of  the 
past.  The  enduring  landmarks  of  early  days  are  very  few. 

It  was  not  my  fortune  to  know  Buffalo  until  what  to 
people  in  middle  life  may  be  called  comparatively  recent 
years.  My  residence  here  dates  from  1881 ;  a  little  more 
than  a  quarter  century.  To  elderly  persons  who  were  born 
here,  who  are  familiar  with  the  conditions  and  traditions  of 
a  generation  earlier  than  their  own,  the  Buffalo  I  can  have 
known  is  not  an  old-time  Buffalo  at  all.  For  that  matter, 
none  of  us  who  read  this  page  can  have  known  the  old 
Buffalo.  And  we  must  remember  that  for  the  young  people 
of  today  many  things  even  of  thirty  years  ago,  would  seem 
strangely  antiquated.  For  instance,  the  recent  Buffalo  that 
I  first  knew,  was  a  city  of  much  less  than  half  its  present 
size.  There  were  still  trees  around  the  old  First  Church, 
and  residences  in  its  rear,  along  Pearl  street.  There  were 
a  few  horse-car  lines.  You  could  go  out  Niagara  street,  as 
far  as  the  Prospect  reservoir,  where  the  74th  regiment 
armory  now  stands,  for  five  cents ;  if  you  rode  further,  the 
fare  was  eight  cents.  Horse-cars  took  you  out  Main  street 
to  Cold  Spring.  You  could  go  on,  as  far  as  the  Sisters' 


250  ASSOCIATIONS  OF  BUFFALO. 

Hospital,  in  a  bobtail  car  drawn  by  one  horse,  over  rails  at 
the  side  of  the  street.  When  business  seemed  to  warrant, 
it  ran  once  an  hour.  On  Main  street  the  Williamsville  stage 
was  as  familiar  as  the  Lockport  trolley  cars  are  now — but 
it  went  slower.  There  were  still  public  cisterns  in  many 
parts  of  town,  and  the  pumps  on  the  Terrace,  at  Main  and 
Genesee,  and  elsewhere,  were  much  used.  Bacteriology  was 
in  its  infancy,  and  the  microbe,  though  no  doubt  then  with 
us,  had  not  attained  its  present  monopoly  of  ailment. 

The  old  group  of  down-town  churches  were  still  the 
devotional  meeting-places  of  most  of  the  church-going 
population.  The  phrase,  "The  Churches,"  was  still  in  com- 
mon use  as  designation  of  what  is  now  Shelton  Square ;  no 
doubt  some  of  our  older  residents  still  use  it,  but  the  reason 
for  it  is  no  longer  apparent.  The  "Old  First"  has  gone ;  so 
have  St.  John's,  and  Trinity,  and  the  Washington-street 
Baptist,  and  the  United  Presbyterian,  and  two  or  three 
other  earlier  churches  on  Washington  street.  The  French 
St.  Peter's  has  gone,  and  the  Wells-street  chapel.  Old 
Temple  Beth  Zion,  originally  a  Methodist  church,  made  way 
for  the  Masonic  building  on  Niagara  street.  The  Central 
Presbyterian  and  the  Niagara-square  Baptist — Congrega- 
tional in  its  later  years — are  both  abandoned,  and  the  former 
at  least  may  be  demolished  before  these  lines  reach  the 
reader.  Of  them  all,  there  now  remain,  consecrated  to  reli- 
gious use,  but  two,  St.  Paul's  and  St.  Joseph's.  A  new  St. 
Joseph's  is  building,  but  its  completion  will  not,  it  is  to  be 
hoped,  put  an  end  to  the  older  edifice,  infinitely  rich  in 
associations,  or  to  its  sacred  use. 

Thirty  years  ago  we  had  but  one  theatre — at  least  but 
one  attended  by  polite  society — the  old  Academy.  There 
was  still  an  occasional  sailing  craft  in  the  harbor.  The 
Board  of  Trade  still  flourished  on  Central  Wharf;  and 


ASSOCIATIONS   OF  BUFFALO.  251 

from  the  purlieus  of  Canal  street  the  sulphurous  glory  had 
not  yet  wholly  departed.  What  are  now  choice  residence 
districts  were  still  vacant  land  and  cow-pasture.  Among 
my  own  recollections  of  what  I  must  call  modern  Buffalo, 
are,  an  attendance  at  ball-games  on  grounds  between  Rich- 
mond and  Elmwood;  and  at  a  circus  whose  tents  were 
pitched  just  west  of  Wadsworth  street,  about  where  St. 
John's  place  now  runs. 

As  one  notes  the  constant  change,  both  in  the  business 
and  residential  sections,  one  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  in 
Buffalo  at  least  each  generation  practically  creates  its  own 
city.  If  one  will  compare  the  Buffalo  of  today  with  that, 
say,  of  thirty  years  ago,  he  will  be  surprised  to  note 
how  few  of  the  important  buildings  are  old.  Our  City  Hall, 
it  is  true,  dates  back  to  1876,  and  the  Jail  is  somewhat  older; 
but  the  Federal  building,  the  Municipal  building,  every  one 
of  the  theatres;  two  of  the  three  high  schools;  all  of  the 
prominent  hotels  except  the  Genesee;  even  the  historic 
old  Mansion  House  has  been  built  over;  our  two  great 
armories ;  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
building;  and  the  "old"  Y.  M.  C.  A.  building,  now  the 
home  of  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.;  all  of  the  conspicuous  club 
houses — the  Saturn,  University,  Twentieth  Century,  Coun- 
try— all  in  fact  except  the  Buffalo  and  the  Park,  and  they 
occupy  former  residences  so  altered  and  enlarged  as  to  be 
practically  new;  the  Public  Library,  the  Grosvenor,  the 
Catholic  Institute,  the  Historical  Building,  the  Albright  Art 
Gallery;  most  of  the  churches  and  hospitals  and  asylums; 
the  banks;  scores  of  public  and  private  schools;  miles 
on  miles  of  business  buildings,  and  thousands  of  residences, 
which  really  make  up  the  Buffalo  of  today,  have  all  been 
built  within  the  last  thirty  years.  Attention  is  called 
to  this  feature  of  our  city  merely  to  emphasize  the  point 


252  ASSOCIATIONS   OF  BUFFALO. 

that  historic  association  does  not  depend  upon  the  preser- 
vation of  the  old.  The  associations  remain  with  us  though 
the  face  of  our  city  constantly  changes ;  and  while  we  often 
lament  the  passing  of  a  beautiful  old  residence  or  a  build- 
ing which  has  been  the  scene  of  important  events,  it  is  well 
to  remember  that  after  all  the  history  of  the  community  is 
embodied  in  the  acts  of  its  men  and  women. 

It  is  with  the  deeds  of  the  makers  of  Buffalo  that  the 
student  of  our  history  is,  after  all,  most  concerned.  It 
would  be  a  pleasure,  were  it  feasible,  to  recall  the  names 
and  achievements  of  many  of  the  men  and  women  who  have 
lived  their  lives  in  this  community  and  accomplished  some- 
thing for  the  world's  betterment;  but  as  one  begins  to 
recall  name  after  name,  their  very  number  is  seen  to  make 
it  impracticable.  Our  dearest  associations  must  always 
remain  with  the  personality  of  those  who  have  lived  and 
worked,  rather  than  with  the  things  of  brick  and  mortar  that 
may  withstand  for  a  few  years.  The  only  enduring  work 
and  the  most  significant  is  the  wholly  immaterial  memory 
of  good  lives  and  useful  effort,  things  that  cannot  be 
labelled,  nor  kept  in  museums,  nor  marked  by  tablets.  Is  it 
not  true  of  all  history,  that  it  is  merely  the  outcome  of  indi- 
vidual character  and  effort? 


FROM    INDIAN    RUNNER    TO 
*'  TELEPHONE 

ORIGINALLY    WRITTEN    FOR    THE    MAGAZINE    "OPPORTUNITY," 
JANUARY,    1909. 


"VTO  chapter  in  the  story  of  Western  New  York  is  more 
•*  ^  important  or  more  interesting  than  that  which  relates 
the  development  of  means  of  intercommunication.  It 
touches  the  real  life  of  the  people  far  more  than  the  record 
of  wars  and  politics. 

Western  New  York  has  sometimes  been  called  the  "most 
highly  civilized  spot  on  earth."  If  there  is  a  touch  of  irony 
or  humor  in  this,  the  residents  of  Western  New  York  need 
not  admit  it.  They  do  have  all  the  advantages  and  blessings 
to  be  found  anywhere.  In  nothing  are  they  more  fortunate 
than  in  facilities  of  travel  and  communication  by  mail,  tele- 
graph and  telephone. 

The  telephone  service  in  our  day,  the  highest  and  best 
development  of  intercommunication,  is  the  latest  of  a  long 
series  of  steps  in  our  progress. 

When  the  white  man  first  came  to  know  what  we  call 
Western  New  York,  it  was  the  home  of  a  people  highly 
developed,  compared  with  most  of  the  American  aborigines. 
Their  trails  ran  across  and  up  and  down  the  country,  and 
their  fleet-footed  runners,  by  using  the  relay  system,  carried 
verbal  messages  from  Lake  Erie  to  the  Hudson  in  an 
incredibly  short  time.  The  first  whites  used  the  old  Indian 
trails;  but  they  used  more  the  natural  waterways.  The 


254  INDIAN  RUNNER   TO    TELEPHONE. 

campaigns  and  marches  of  the  French — who  were  the  first 
white  masters  of  the  region — and  after  them  of  the  British, 
were  mostly  made  by  boats  which  skirted  the  shores  of 
Ontario  and  Erie,  or  paddled  and  poled  up  and  down  the 
streams,  with  arduous  portages  from  one  watershed  to 
another. 

This  was  the  state  of  things  so  far  as  travel  or  traffic 
was  concerned  when  white  men  first  undertook  to  acquire 
the  lands  of  Western  New  York. 

For  this  sketch  we  will  refer  to  Western  New  York  as 
that  region  bounded  on  the  east  by  a  line  running  through 
Seneca  lake.  Under  the  old  Colonial  charters,  both  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  York  made  claim  to  this  territory.  The 
final  adjustment  of  their  claims  led  to  a  sale  in  1788  on  the 
part  of  Massachusetts  of  the  pre-emption  right  to  some  six 
million  acres,  to  Nathaniel  Gorham  and  Oliver  Phelps. 
They  paid  about  a  million  dollars  for  it,  but  they  paid  in 
scrip  which  soon  fell  much  below  par.  The  first  Western 
New  York  land  deal  was  not  a  conspicuous  success  for  the 
speculators.  Two  years  later,  Phelps  and  Gorham  bought 
the  Indian  title  to  2,600,000  acres,  extending  from  about 
the  line  of  Seneca  lake  to  the  Genesee  river.  The  Indians 
got  very  little  out  of  the  bargain,  as  was  the  case  in  every 
trade  with  the  whites. 

In  1791,  the  western  part  of  the  great  tract  was  resold  to 
Robert  Morris,  who  again  sold  it  to  a  company  of  Dutch 
speculators,  who,  although  they  did  not  constitute  a  cor- 
porate company,  are  known  in  history  as  the  Holland  Land 
Company. 

These  Dutch  speculators  sent  their  surveyors  and  agents 
into  the  wilderness.  They  opened  the  first  roads  and  laid 
out  the  first  settlements.  For  the  sake  of  its  good  harbor 
on  Lake  Erie,  a  town  was  begun  on  Buffalo  creek  in  1799, 


INDIAN  RUNNER   TO    TELEPHONE.  255 

and  with  Dutch  loyalty  was  called  New  Amsterdam.  It 
soon  became  Buffalo. 

For  many  years  the  two  tracts  into  which  Western  New 
York  was  thus  divided, — the  Phelps  and  Gorham  tract  east 
of  the  Genesee,  and  the  Holland  Land  Company's  tract  west 
of  it, — present  similar  phases  of  development. 

The  first  people  to  come  in  and  take  up  the  lands  were 
from  New  England;  especially  in  the  Genesee  valley  was 
the  New  England  immigration  so  large  that  it  turned  that 
fertile  wilderness  into  what  is  still  the  garden  region  of 
New  York  State,  and  gave  it  a  character  for  thrift,  culture 
and  morality  which  constituted  it  a  second  New  England. 

The  Holland  Purchase,  too,  had  a  similar  influx  of 
settlers  from  New  England ;  but  as  time  went  on  it  received 
more  immigrants  from  Europe,  most  of  them  bringing  very 
few  worldly  goods.  Its  interests,  too,  were  less  purely  agri- 
cultural, especially  at  Buffalo,  where  lake  traffic  drew 
together  large  numbers  of  sailors  and  others  of  a  more  or 
less  rough  and  adventurous  disposition.  Buffalo  has  always 
been  made  up  of  many  races.  Rochester,  the  chief  city  of 
the  Genesee  valley  region,  has  always  remained  more  dis- 
tinctly of  New  England  parentage  and  English  origin. 

The  first  thing  that  marks  the  development  of  a  new 
region  after  the  settler  has  hewn  the  trees  and  built  his 
cabin,  is  the  opening  of  a  road  that  he  may  be  in  touch  with 
his  neighbors, — neighbors  none  the  less  though  perhaps 
many  miles  distant. 

The  first  wagon  track  on  the  Holland  Purchase  was 
opened  in  1798  and  followed  in  the  main  the  old  Indian 
trail  from  Canandaigua  to  the  Buffalo  creek.  In  the  next 
ten  years,  many  roads  were  opened  between  the  new  settle- 
ments, usually  by  the  agents  of  the  Holland  Land  Company. 
One  important  road  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  still  a  much 


256  INDIAN  RUNNER   TO    TELEPHONE. 

used  highway,  was  not  so  constructed.  This  was  the 
Military  Road  opened  by  United  States  officers  stationed  at 
Fort  Niagara  in  1800.  They  constructed  it  from  the  brow 
of  the  high  land  above  Lewiston  to  Scajaquada  Creek,  now 
within  the  limits  of  Buffalo.  Originally  built  to  facilitate 
the  transportation  of  troops  and  munitions  of  war  from 
Lake  Ontario  to  Lake  Erie,  it  later  became  a  convenient 
road  for  the  settlers.  A  portion  of  it,  today  known  as  the 
Military  Road,  is  a  part  of  the  street  system  of  Buffalo. 

Even  before  the  roads  were  made,  the  people  of  Western 
New  York  asked  the  Government  for  a  mail  service.  Before 
the  era  of  settlements,  when  the  French  or  British  troops 
controlled  the  region,  military  mail  was  sent  back  and  forth 
by  boat  between  Oswego  and  Fort  Niagara,  and  this  method 
was  followed  long  after  the  first  roads  were  opened.  In 
winter  the  mail  carrier  was  either  an  athletic  soldier  or  an 
Indian  who  ran  through  the  forest  on  snow-shoes.  Many 
an  important  mail  has  been  delivered  by  such  a  carrier  at 
Oswego,  Fort  Niagara  and  Buffalo  Creek. 

In  1790  there  were  but  175  postoffices  in  the  United 
States  and  1875  miles  of  post  roads.  These  were  mostly 
between  old  cities  near  the  seaboard.  In  New  York  State 
Utica  got  its  first  mail  in  1793,  Canandaigua  in  1794.  The 
first  mail  was  carried  from  Canandaigua  to  Niagara, — 
meaning  not  the  present  city  of  the  Falls,  but  the  old  Fort, 
— in  1797.  On  all  the  early  mail  routes  in  Western  New 
York,  the  carrier  was  a  horseman  who  rode  over  the  mirey 
and  stump-crowded  roads,  usually  with  his  mail  in  his  hat 
or  pocket,  carrying  food  for  himself  and  oats  for  his  horse 
in  saddle-bags.  As  settlements  and  loadside  taverns  mul- 
tiplied, the  food  question  was  simplified  and  the  saddle- 
bags were  used  for  the  mail.  On  September  30,  1804, 
Buffalo's  first  postmaster  was  appointed.  This  was  Erastus 


INDIAN  RUNNER    TO    TELEPHONE.  257 

Granger,  for  many  years  one  of  the  most  prominent  men  in 
Western  New  York.  At  that  time  there  were  no  postoffices 
nearer  to  Buffalo  than  Batavia  on  the  east,  Niagara  to  the 
north  and  Erie  to  the  southwest.  The  post  route  from 
Canandaigua  to  Niagara  was  changed  in  that  year  so  that 
the  carrier  rode  his  horse  by  way  of  Buffalo  creek,  leaving 
there  the  packet  of  letters  and  papers  for  Buffalo  and  for 
the  occasional  schooner  on  the  lake.  Buffalo  received  its 
mail  once  in  two  weeks  until  1805 ;  then,  until  1809,  it  had 
a  weekly  service.  In  1810  a  change  to  "stage-wagon" 
service  was  established  from  Buffalo  eastward  and  the  mail 
used  that  method.  Andrew  Langdon — grandfather  of  a 
prominent  citizen  of  Buffalo  of  that  name — drove  the  first 
stage  from  Albany  to  Buffalo. 

The  war  of  1812  to  1815  was  a  great  setback  to  the 
development  of  Western  New  York.  It  stopped  immigra- 
tion, it  impoverished  many  of  the  settlers  who  had  already 
taken  up  lands,  and  checked  the  development  of  all  im- 
provements. 

From  about  1815,  for  ten  years  or  so,  the  interest  of  the 
people  in  this  section  largely  centered  on  the  construction 
of  the  Erie  canal.  Open  from  the  east  as  far  as  Rochester 
in  1823  and  to  Buffalo  and  Lake  Erie  in  the  fall  of  1825,  it 
became  for  a  period  the  main  highway  of  freight  shipment 
and  of  travel;  but  it  did  not  carry  the  mail.  When  the 
canal  was  opened,  in  October,  1825,  the  news  was  carried 
by  the  booming  of  cannon,  one  after  another,  across  the 
State  from  Lake  Erie  to  the  Hudson,  in  one  hour  and 
twenty  minutes. 

The  era  in  which  the  canal  was  without  rival  was  short. 
Eight  years  after  the  first  boat  had  left  Buffalo  for  the  east, 
a  railway  was  opened  from  Buffalo  to  Black  Rock.  It  was 
a  most  primitive  construction,  the  rail  being  of  wood 


258  INDIAN  RUNNER   TO   TELEPHONE. 

covered  with  a  strap  of  iron  and  the  motive  power  a  team  of 
horses;  but  it  was  the  beginning  of  the  great  railway  era. 
In  1836,  however,  a  real  railroad  with  a  steam  locomotive 
whch  drew  the  queer  old  cars  over  a  wonderfully  rough 
track  was  opened  from  Buffalo  to  Niagara  Falls.  It  car- 
ried the  mail  and  there  was  no  lack  of  people  willing  to  take 
chances  and  travel  on  the  new-fangled  line.  The  chain  of 
railways  across  New  York  State  from  Albany  to  Buffalo 
was  completed  in  1843.  Built  in  sections  with  connecting 
links  added  at  intervals  of  years,  and  representing  many 
companies  and  various  interests  when  completed,  it  was 
found  to  keep  very  nearly  the  line  of  the  old  stage  road, 
which  in  turn  had  gradually  evolved  from  the  earlier  roads 
of  the  settlers,  and  these  had  followed,  wherever  practicable, 
the  ancient  trails  of  the  Indians. 

Whoever  rides  today  in  the  luxurious  coaches  on  the 
rapid-moving  trains  across  the  state,  passes,  for  the  greater 
part,  through  the  same  valleys,  skirts  the  same  hills — but 
does  not  see  the  same  forests — which  marked  the  way 
along  which  the  Iroquois  runner  hastened  two  hundred 
years  ago. 

From  the  time  railroads  were  first  built,  they  carried  the 
mails,  but  it  was  not  until  many  years  later  that  the  rate  of 
postage  was  so  reduced  that  communication  by  mail  ceased 
to  be  an  expense  which  was  felt  by  the  average  individual. 
In  the  earlier  years,  domestic  postage  ranged  from  6^c  to 
25c.  Towards  the  close  of  the  War  of  1812,  this  maximum 
rate  of  25c  was  increased  50  per  cent.,  so  that  a  letter  of 
any  considerable  length  sent  from  one  part  of  New  York 
State  to  another  was  likely  to  cost  either  the  sender  or  the 
receiver  37^ac.  No  envelopes  were  used.  The  correct 
way  of  folding,  sealing  and  addressing  the  sheets  of 
paper  is  now  one  of  the  lost  arts.  The  modern  envelope 


INDIAN  RUNNER   TO    TELEPHONE.  259 

and  cheap  postage  practically  revolutionized  domestic  cor- 
respondence. 

The  railway  era  was  quickly  followed  by  the  Age  of 
Wire.  Before  people  in  New  York  State  had  overcome 
their  timidity  enough  to  travel  generally  on  the  railways, 
they  began  to  hear  of  Morse's  new-fangled  "magnetic 
telegraph."  Nothing  in  the  history  of  the  world  did  so 
much  to  revolutionize  intercommunication  as  this  invention. 
Next  to  the  inventor  himself,  none  did  more  to  make  it 
practicable  than  two  men  of  Western  New  York.  It  was 
Millard  Fillmore  of  Buffalo,  afterward  President  of  the 
United  States,  who,  as  a  member  of  Congress  in  1842,  pro- 
cured for  Morse  the  Government  appropriation  for  the 
construction  of  an  experimental  line.  Morse's  idea  was  to 
bury  the  wires.  It  was  Ezra  Cornell  of  Ithaca  who  first 
suggested  stringing  them  on  poles.  Mr.  Cornell  made  a 
fortune  out  of  the  idea  and  hastened  the  day  when  tele- 
graph communication  was  made  well  nigh  universal. 

The  Civil  War  had  a  curious  effect  on  the  development 
of  the  telegraph.  Prior  to  the  war  it  was  used  sparingly, 
partly  because  of  its  cost,  partly  because  many  people  mis- 
trusted its  accuracy.  But  the  demand  for  prompt  reports 
from  the  front  during  the  war  led  the  great  newspapers  of 
the  country  to  make  the  first  extensive  use  of  the  wire  for 
news  reports.  The  business  public  soon  followed.  Boards 
Of  trade  and  commercial  interests  generally  made  little  or 
no  use  of  the  telegraph  until  about  the  time  of  the  Civil 
War.  Now  the  bulk  of  their  business  is  transacted  by  wire. 

Extensive  as  telegraphic  communication  has  become,  it 
has  never  reached  every  corner  of  every  county,  and  prac- 
tically every  household,  as  has  the  telephone.  This  is  the 
more  wonderful  when  we  recall  that  the  practical  use  of 
the  telephone  is  scarcely  more  than  a  quarter  century  old. 


260  INDIAN  RUNNER   TO    TELEPHONE. 

Although  the  telephone  was  in  use  more  than  thirty  years 
ago,  it  was  for  some  years  chiefly  confined  to  great  cities 
and  short  distances.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  now  all 
of  Western  New  York  is  brought  into  instantaneous  com- 
munication by  a  network  of  wires. 

While  these  advances  have  been  taking  place,  Western 
New  York  itself  has  been  transformed.  When  the  first 
Federal  census  was  taken,  in  1790,  the  white  population  of 
old  Ontario  county,  which  then  embraced  all  of  the  territory 
we  are  considering,  was  1085.  The  fourteen  counties  into 
which  old  Ontario  has  been  divided,  had  at  the  Federal 
census  of  1900  a  population  of  1,469,360,  now  beyond 
question  in  excess  of  a  million  and  a  half.  With  the  possi- 
bilities of  wireless  communication  and  other  yet  undreamed- 
of improvements,  who  can  doubt  that  the  coming  decades 
will  show  changes  in  our  means  of  intercommunication  as 
marked  and  wonderful  as  those  of  the  past  ? 


SOME    THANKSGIVING 
r  CONTRASTS  ! 

A  SUNDAY  AFTERNOON  ADDRESS  AT  THE  HISTORICAL  BUILDING. 


T  ASK  you  to  join  with  me  in  considering  briefly  the 
•*•  historical  aspect  of  Thanksgiving,  the  American  feast 
and  holiday  which  most  of  us — I  hope  all  of  us — are  to 
celebrate  this  week.  I  have  no  thought  of  preaching  a 
Thanksgiving  sermon.  Our  point  of  view  in  these  talks,  as 
you  know,  is  always  that  of  the  student  of  history.  As  such 
let  us  take  note  of  certain  significant  changes  in  the  char- 
acter and  observance  of  this  day  we  call  Thanksgiving. 

And  first,  let  me  call  attention  to  certain  contrasts  in  the 
proclamations  establishing  the  day.  I  hope  you  have  all 
read  the  short  proclamation  issued  a  few  days  ago  by 
Governor  Hughes.  I  was  much  struck  on  reading  it  with 
its  significant  difference  from  many  of  the  formal  procla- 
mations which  have  preceded  it.  "With  profound  appre- 
ciation," says  the  Governor,  "of  the  obligations  of  liberty 
and  of  our  dependence,  for  the  maintenance  of  our  insti- 
tutions, upon  a  proper  sense  of  the  responsibilities  of  citi- 
zenship and  upon  the  cultivation  of  those  qualities  of  char- 
acter which  will  enable  us  to  discharge  them."  And  again 
he  says :  "Let  us  devote  our  lives  to  the  attainment  of  the 
best  of  which  we  are  capable  in  all  good  works,  delighting 
in  our  fellowship  and  in  the  joyous  service  of  brotherhood." 


262  SOME    THANKSGIVING   CONTRASTS. 

And  then  he  goes  on  and  in  the  usual  way  recommends  a 
religious  observance  of  the  day. 

But  such  language  as  Governor  Hughes  uses,  such  ideas 
and  ideals  as  inspired  that  language,  would  have  been  abso- 
lutely impossible  and  incomprehensible  to  the  old  Colonial 
governors  whose  proclamations  instituted  the  observance  of 
the  day. 

Contrast  with  these  words  of  Governor  Hughes  the 
following  from  the  Connecticut  proclamation  of  1650: 
"Every  person  shall  duly  resort  and  attend  thereunto  upon 
such  public  fast  days  and  days  of  thanksgiving  as  are  to  be 
generally  kept  by  the  appointment  of  authority,"  and  for 
failure  to  obey  this  mandate  the  Connecticut  citizen  was 
liable  to  a  fine  of  five  shillings.  This  illustrates  the  early 
idea  of  commanding  the  people,  not  merely  to  attend  service, 
but  to  pray  and  to  fast  and  to  rejoice. 

More  than  one  hundred  years  later,  in  Massachusetts 
Bay  Colony,  a  man  was  liable  to  fine  or  other  punishment  if 
he  worked  on  days  appointed  for  fasting  and  prayer.  In 
1696,  William  Veazie  of  Boston  was  pilloried  for  plowing 
on  a  fast-day. 

For  many  years  such  was  the  conception  and  the  custom. 
Gradually,  as  the  nation  expanded,  the  ideas  underlying 
this  thanksgiving  institution  shifted.  It  would  be  an  inter- 
esting inquiry  to  trace  year  by  year  the  evolution  of  the 
modern  conception ;  but  for  our  purpose  let  us  cite  only  one 
other,  a  proclamation  by  Governor  Seward,  made  some 
fifty  years  ago,  in  which,  after  reviewing  the  blessings  of 
the  people,  he  says:  "I  recommend  to  my  fellow  citizens 
that  they  abstain  on  that  day  from  secular  employments." 
It  was  no  longer  a  peremptory  order,  but  a  recommenda- 
tion. Governor  Seward's  proclamation  was  by  no  means 
exceptional;  his  point  of  view  was  that  of  his  time;  but 


SOME   THANKSGIVING   CONTRASTS.  263 

note  how  far  he  had  travelled  from  the  old  compulsory 
mandates  of  1650.  And  now,  half  a  century  after  Seward, 
we  find  the  Governor  of  New  York  State  neither  ordering 
nor  formally  recommending,  but  heartily  reminding  the 
citizen  and  the  individual  of  his  obligations  to  government 
and  to  others.  Nothing  more  perfectly  illustrates  the 
growth  of  the  feeling  of  personal  responsibility,  than  such 
a  proclamation  as  we  have  this  year  from  Governor  Hughes. 
Again,  notice  the  contrasts  in  the  observance  of  the  day. 
It  has  come  to  be  a  custom  that  no  governor  of  a  State 
issues  a  Thanksgiving  proclamation  until  the  President  of 
the  United  States  has  issued  one.  By  custom  the  institution 
has  taken  on  a  national  character.  In  its  origin,  as  you 
know,  it  was  purely  local,  and  for  many  years  it  continued 
a  variable  and  irregular  institution.  Three  of  the  early 
Presidents,  Washington,  John  Adams  and  Madison,  issued 
proclamations  to  the  people,  calling  on  them  to  observe 
certain  days  with  fasting,  prayer  and  thanksgiving ;  but 
after  Madison  no  President  of  the  United  States  issued  a 
proclamation  for  a  national  thanksgiving  until  Abraham 
Lincoln.  This  seems  the  more  remarkable  because  at  dif- 
ferent periods  in  our  history,  when  most  of  the  states  and 
territories  had  practically  settled  upon  one  day  in  the  year 
for  thanksgiving  observance,  requests  had  been  presented 
to  the  President  that  the  institution  of  Thanksgiving  might 
be  given  a  national  character.  This  feeling  manifested 
itself  always  during  or  after  some  national  crisis  or 
calamity.  The  most  notable  Thanksgiving  in  the  early 
history  of  the  country  followed  the  treaty  of  peace  con- 
cluding the  War  of  1812.  After  the  great  financial  crisis 
of  i837-'38,  after  the  Mexican  War,  and  at  different  times 
during  the  long  period  of  bitter  agitation  over  slavery, 
special  fast  days,  sometimes  combined  with  the  feature  of 


264  SOME   THANKSGIVING   CONTRASTS. 

thanksgiving,  were  ordained  by  the  governors  of  different 
states.  But  there  was  a  feeling  at  Washington  that  such 
matters  belonged  to  the  states. 

A  Buffalo  President  had  offered  to  him,  urged  upon  him, 
the  opportunity  to  establish  this  most  symbolical  day  of 
American  observance,  but  he  failed  to  improve  the  oppor- 
tunity. This  was  Millard  Fillmore.  While  he  was  Presi- 
dent in  1852,  a  strong  movement  was  started  to  give  to 
Thanksgiving  a  national  character  by  having  it  proclaimed 
by  the  President  and  observed  on  the  same  day  throughout 
the  Union.  Prior  to  that  time,  the  different  states  named 
their  own  days,  so  that  a  Massachusetts  man  might  cele- 
brate Thanksgiving  in  Boston,  and,  perhaps,  being  later  in 
Connecticut  or  New  Jersey,  might  celebrate  another 
Thanksgiving  with  the  citizens  of  those  states. 

Among  the  manuscripts  in  the  possession  of  this  Society, 
formerly  belonging  to  President  Fillmore,  are  certain  inter- 
esting letters  written  to  him  by  representatives  of  public 
journals  and  by  organizers  and  educational  workers,  ex- 
plaining to  him  at  great  length  how  he  might  add  to  the 
luster  of  his  administration,  by  creating  a  national  Thanks- 
giving Day.  Mr.  Fillmore's  reply  was  that  such  matters 
were  the  prerogative  of  the  several  states.  And  such, 
apparently,  was  the  view  of  his  successors  until  the  day  of 
Lincoln. 

I  have  said  that  the  popular  demand  for  this  observance 
always  followed  a  period  of  crisis  or  calamity,  so  that  you 
may  readily  believe  that  the  greatest  of  our  nation's  crises, 
the  Civil  War,  turned  the  minds  of  the  people  more  strongly 
than  ever  .before  in  their  history  to  the  formal  observance 
of  this  institution.  President  Lincoln  issued  several  procla- 
mations creating  days  of  prayer  and  fasting  during  the 
Civil  War. 


SOME    THANKSGIVING   CONTRASTS.  265 

In  1863  he  appointed  August  6th  as  a  special  Thanks- 
giving because  "there  have  been  vouchsafed  to  the  Army 
and  Navy  of  the  United  States  victories  on  land  and  on  the 
sea  so  signal  and  so  effective  as  to  furnish  reasonable 
grounds  for  augmented  confidence  that  the  Union  of  these 
States  will  be  maintained,  their  constitution  preserved  and 
their  peace  and  prosperity  permanently  restored."  The 
people  were  not  asked  to  give  thanks  because  the  North  had 
v/on  victories  over  the  South,  but  "for  augmented  confidence 
that  the  Union  of  these  States  will  be  maintained."  I  cannot 
forbear  to  call  attention  to  one  striking  thing  which  this 
quotation  illustrates — the  beauty  and  purity  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
English.  How  came  he  to  be  master  of  a  diction  that  rivals 
in  its  rhythmic  appeal  to  the  ear,  and  in  its  precise  and 
forceful  use  of  our  speech,  the  most  exalted  passages  in 
the  Prophets,  the  prayer  of  St.  Crysostom,  or  the  best  of 
English  anywhere?  Was  the  gift  his  because  he  was  abso- 
lutely sincere,  and  wrought,  as  well  as  wrote,  in  the  midst  of 
times  that  taught,  no  less  than  they  tried,  the  souls  of  men? 
'  But  President  Lincoln  died  before  the  whole  country 
had  fairly  come  to  consider  itself  once  more  as  a  Union. 
So  that  it  was  his  successor,  President  Johnson,  who  had 
the  distinction  of  issuing  the  first  Thanksgiving  proclama- 
tion for  a  national  observance  throughout  the  country. 
From  Andrew  Johnson's  day  to  this  we  have  had  an  annual 
Thanksgiving  proclamation  from  the  President. 

Nothing  better  illustrates  the  changed  conditions  since 
Thanksgivings  were  first  observed  in  this  country  than  a 
list  of  some  of  the  things  for  which  thanks  were  specially 
ordered  at  different  periods. 

Our  ancestors  gave  thanks  for  not  starving  to  death. 
This,  in  a  word,  was  the  occasion  of  those  first  New  Eng- 
land Thanksgivings. 


266  SOME   THANKSGIVING   CONTRASTS. 

For  rain. 

For  the  end  of  a  too  rainy  season. 

For  the  arrival  of  provision  ships. 

For  deliverance  from  pirates. 

For  defeat  of  enemies  in  war. 

For  safe  arrival  of  persons  of  rank  or  quality. 

For  the  birth  of  an  heir  to  the  British  throne.  This,  of 
course,  in  the  English  colonies. 

For  the  establishment  of  the  Constitution. 

Some  of  these  promptings  to  thanksgiving  may  be  dwelt 
on  a  little.  For  instance,  the  gratitude  for  rain.  That  caused 
the  second  American  Thanksgiving,  in  July,  1623.  This 
was  no  harvest-home,  but  a  triumph  of  the  faith  of  the  com- 
munity. From  May  to  the  middle  of  July  there  had  been 
no  rain.  The  Pilgrims  stood  it  as  long  as  they  could,  then 
set  apart  "a  solemn  day  of  humiliation."  In  the  morning, 
when  they  began  to  pray,  according  to  the  old  chronicle,  "it 
was  clear  weather  and  very  hot,  and  not  a  cloud  or  any 
sign  of  rain  to  be  seen."  Strenuous  religious  services  were 
kept  up  for  nine  hours ;  towards  evening  it  began  to  rain — 
and  the  shower  lasted  fourteen  days.  They  were  no  mere 
dilettanti,  these  Pilgrim  fathers,  when  it  came  to  praying. 
Then  they  changed  their  fast  to  a  thanksgiving. 

You  may  be  a  bit  skeptical  as  to  a  thanksgiving  because 
of  defeat  of  enemies  in  war.  A  manuscript  preserved  in 
the  archives  of  the  Hague  shows  that  in  1644  the  New 
Yorkers  marched  to  Greenwich,  Conn.,  shot  or  burned  alive 
five  or  six  hundred  Indians,  including  women  and  children; 
they  then  marched  back  to  New  York — and  sat  down  to  a 
Thanksgiving  dinner !  And  did  the  New  England  colonists 
have  a  Thanksgiving  season  after  the  virtual  annihilation 
of  the  Pequots  ? 

It  has  always  been  true  that  men  give  thanks  at  the 


SOME    THANKSGIVING   CONTRASTS.  267 

defeat  of  their  enemies.  One  of  the  most  notable  Thanks- 
giving Days  in  the  history  of  our  country  was  October  9, 
1760,  which  was  appointed  by  Colonial  Governors  "a  day 
of  Public  Thanksgiving  for  the  success  of  his  Majesty's 
Arms,  more  especially  in  the  intire  Reduction  of  Canada." 
Clergymen  everywhere  (except  in  Canada),  and  especially 
in  Boston,  preached  long  sermons  full  of  exultation  at  the 
overthrow  of  the  power  of  France  in  America ;  and  these 
were  the  good  old-fashioned  double-barreled  sermons, 
which  began  with  a  long  discourse  in  the  morning,  stopped 
for  a  noon  breathing  spell,  and  wound  up  with  two  or  three 
more  hours  of  exhortation  in  the  afternoon.  To  many  an 
eager,  restless  youth  in  those  days,  the  real  Thanksgiving 
must  have  begun  when  the  minister's  "amen"  released  him 
from  all  these  hours  on  hard  benches. 

One  of  those  old  Thanksgiving  sermons  has  come  down 
to  me.  It  was  preached  on  this  same  October  9,  1760, 
morning  and  afternoon,  by  Jonathan  Mayhew,  a  most  emi- 
nent D.  D.  of  his  time,  in  the  West  Church,  Boston.  His 
text  was:  "Thou  art  my  son.  .  .  .  Ask  of  me,  and  I 
will  give  the  Heathen  for  thine  inheritance,  and  the  utter- 
most parts  of  the  earth  for  thy  possession."  The  devout 
inference,  of  course,  was  that  the  Lord  had  taken  Canada 
away  from  the  wicked  French,  and  had  put  it  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  good  English,  as  a  part  of  the  general  scheme 
of  advancing  His  kingdom  on  earth.  That  was,  of  course, 
the  only  way  that  Minister  Mayhew  and  his  people  could 
look  at  it;  that  is  the  way  we  always  look  at  the  defeat  of 
an  adversary.  The  curious  thing  about  it  is  that  these  same 
people,  a  few  years  later,  were  holding  Thanksgiving  ser- 
vices in  gratitude  to  the  Almighty  for  their  own  deliverance 
from  the  English ! 

As  to  the  establishment  of  the  Constitution,  it  is  interest- 


268  SOME   THANKSGIVING   CONTRASTS. 

ing  to  recall  that  in  1789  a  joint  commission  of  the  two 
houses  of  Congress  waited  upon  Washington  "to  request 
that  he  would  recommend  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States  a  day  of  public  thanksgiving  and  thanks  to  God, 
especially  for  affording  them  an  opportunity  peacefully  to 
establish  a  constitution  of  government  for  their  safety  and 
happiness."  There  have  been  other  occasions  in  our  history 
when  Congress  has  asked  the  President  to  proclaim  fast  or 
thanksgiving  days — three  times  during  the  War  of  1812. 

The  modern  evolution  of  Thanksgiving  day  observance 
has  carried  us  a  long  ways  from  the  original  institution. 
Every  schoolboy  knows,  probably  with  more  certainty  of 
information  than  his  elders,  that  what  is  now  a  national 
observance  is  an  outgrowth  of  the  Pilgrim  Thanksgiving. 
As  a  religious  observance  it  antedates  the  coming  of  the 
Pilgrims ;  fasts  and  feasts  are  as  old  as  the  Hebrew  faith, 
if  not  as  old  as  the  race  itself.  But  the  first  American 
Thanksgiving  followed  that  first  Pilgrim  harvest  of  1621 ; 
on  which  joyful  occasion,  thanks  to  "King"  Massasoit,  the 
turkey  was  brought  in,  and  entered  upon  the  most  exalted 
career  attained  by  any  bird,  not  even  excepting  the  eagle. 
We  give  the  eagle  vague  respect,  but  we  love  the  turkey. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  second  American  Thanksgiving. 
The  third  American  Thanksgiving  of  formal  observance 
was  in  1631,  because  of  the  safe  arrival  of  provision  ships. 
Gradually,  the  festival  became  established,  and  extended  to 
other  colonies;  but  Thanksgiving  has  always  been  pre- 
eminently a  New  England  institution.  Other  parts  of  the 
country  have  varied  in  their  regard  for  it.  Where  there  is  a 
strong  element  of  New  England  settlers,  Thanksgiving  is 
made  much  of.  It  was  the  great  day  of  the  year  in  Boston 
for  a  century  and  a  half  before  New  York  paid  much  atten- 
tion to  it.  New  York,  with  different  traditions,  always 


SOME   THANKSGIVING   CONTRASTS.  269 

exalted  Christmas  and  New  Year's.  The  Bostonians  for 
long  years  frowned  on  the  Christmas  festivities,  which 
savored  so  much  of  ritualism  and,  as  the  old  preachers  used 
to  put  it,  "of  popery."  New  York  and  the  southern 
colonies  have  adopted  Thanksgiving  from  New  England. 
New  England  has  warmed  up  to  a  merry  Christmas;  and 
these  and  the  whole  country  have  handed  the  earlier  day 
over  to  feasting,  visiting  and  sports,  with  less  and  less  of 
religious  observance. 

Thanksgiving  Day  and  Fast  Day  sermons  are  really 
pretty  lively  reading — if  they  are  old  enough.  Our  country 
got  through  the  Colonial  and  the  Revolutionary  period  with 
an  alternation  of  fasts  and  thanksgivings  which  truly 
gauges  the  varying  fortunes  of  the  struggle.  But  when  we 
were  once  fairly  launched  in  the  critical  period  that  fol- 
lowed, and  then  so  soon  carried  into  another  war  with  Great 
Britain,  our  troubles  began  in  earnest.  The  American  poli- 
tician arrived  as  he  never  had  before,  and  that  "menace  of 
malice/'  which  one  of  our  Presidents  mentioned  in  one  of 
his  Thanksgiving  proclamations,  showed  itself  as  never 
before.  Fast  days  multiplied,  and  there  were  few  Thanks- 
givings. 

A  very  curious  chapter  of  American  history  could  be 
written  from  data  contained  in  the  Fast  Day  and  Thanks- 
giving Day  sermons  preached  during  the  decade  from  1810 
to  1820.  New  England  did  not  support  President  Madi- 
son's policy.  When  Congress  declared  war,  June  18,  1812, 
the  first  thing  that  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts  did  was 
to  proclaim  a  day  of  fasting,  humiliation  and  prayer.  Other 
governors  did  the  same,  in  addition  to  the  annual  spring 
fast,  usually  a  Sunday  in  April,  which  was  a  regular  observ- 
ance at  that  time.  So  violent  was  the  adverse  criticism  on 
Madison's  policy,  that,  although  the  President  did  not 


270  SOME    THANKSGIVING   CONTRASTS. 

swerve  from  his  course,  he  fell  in  with  the  spirit  of  his 
opponents — or  perhaps  felt  that  the  emergency  called  for  it 
— and  proclaimed  a  national  fast.  This  was  on  August  20, 
1812.  But  before  that  time  the  New  England  ministers  had 
"sailed  into  him,"  hot  and  heavy.  He  was  denounced  as  the 
enemy  of  his  country  and  the  tool  of  France.  Pulpit 
politics,  then  as  now,  were  not  conspicuous  for  discretion. 
But  no  minister  today  would1  be  apt  to  go  to  the  intemperate 
extremes  of  language  and  denunciation  of  the  National 
Executive  that  characterized  many  a  fast  day  sermon  of 
these  wrathy  New  England  parsons.  They  usually  prefaced 
their  remarks  by  saying  that  it  was  not  their  custom  to  talk 
politics  in  the  pulpit,  but  that  the  day  was  exceptional. 
Many  a  Thanksgiving  sermon  nowadays  has  a  like  introduc- 
tion. Freedom  of  speech  meant  free  speaking,  in  the  New 
England  pulpit  in  the  good  old  days. 

The  Reverend  John  Smith,  pastor  of  the  church  in 
Salem,  N.  H.,  told  his  congregation:  "Whether  Great 
Britain  is  friendly  to  the  American  interest  or  not,  she  is 
friendly  to  her  own  interest,  and  in  defending  herself  she 
guards  our  liberties.  Could  our  twenty  ships  effect  any  real 
injury  to  the  thousand  ships  of  the  British  navy,  it  would 
be  like  taking  away  the  rampart  of  our  own  defense.  Could 
the  wildest  imagination  conceive  of  anything  like  victory 
over  England,  in  the  same  event  might  be  seen  the  complete 
ruin  of  our  own  country."  What  a  shock  to  this  good  man 
must  have  been  those  glorious  sea-duels  that  were  so  soon  to 
demonstrate  American  superiority.  He  urged  the  young 
men  not  to  enlist,  and  declared  the  war  not  merely  "an 
alliance  with  France,"  but  "making  war  with  the  Lamb  and 
with  the  saints,"  "uniting  with  Antichrist" — an  epithet  at 
the  time  often  given  to  Bonaparte — "combining  with  the 
deluded  nations,  that  wander  after  the  beast,  .  .  .  and 


SOME   THANKSGIVING   CONTRASTS.  271 

finally  go  to  perdition."  Dr.  Dwight's  fast-day  sermons  in 
the  chapel  of  Yale  College  proved  to  the  boys,  with  absolute 
logic,  that  the  war  would  put  this  country  in  an  abject  alli- 
ance with  France.  "We  are  linking  ourselves,"  said  William 
Ellery  Channing,  in  his  fast-day  sermon  at  the  Federal 
street  church,  Boston,  July  23,  1812,  "with  the  acknowl- 
edged enemy  of  mankind,  with  a  government  which  has  left 
not  a  vestige  of  liberty  where  it  has  extended  its  blasting 
sway."  The  Reverend  John  Gardiner,  at  Trinity  Church, 
Boston,  on  the  same  day  said :  "Let  no  considerations  what- 
ever, my  brethren,  deter  you  at  all  times  and  in  all  places 
from  execrating  the  present  war.  It  is  a  war  unjust,  fool- 
ish and  ruinous.  ...  As  Mr.  Madison  has  declared 
war  let  Mr.  Madison  carry  it  on."  Scores  of  New  Eng- 
land's ministers  harangued  their  congregations  in  this 
strain. 

Outside  of  New  England,  especially  in  Philadelphia,  the 
Episcopal  ministers  were  equally  violent  against  President 
Madison.  All  through  the  war,  the  fast-day  sermons 
preached  by  New  England  ministers  were  practically  an- 
other hostile  campaign  against  the  struggling  American 
forces.  The  preachers  did  not  hesitate  at  personalities 
towards  the  President.  The  Reverend  Elijah  Parish,  at 
Newburyport,  fulminating  on  the  certainty  of  an  alliance 
with  France,  exclaimed:  "Have  not  the  Rulers  at  Paris  and 
Washington,  since  the  commencement  of  the  war,  been  one 
ab  much  as  'the  great  red  dragon'  and  'one  of  his  horns'  are 
one?  Which  sooty  slave  in  all  the  ancient  dominion,  has 
more  obsequiously  watched  the  eye  of  his  master,  or  flew 
to  the  indulgence  of  his  desires,  more  servilely,  than  the 
same  masters  have  waited  and  watched,  and  obeyed  the 
orders  of  the  great  Napoleon?  Are  not  the  bonds  of  this 
alliance  already  stronger  than  death?"  These  clergymen 


272  SOME   THANKSGIVING   CONTRASTS. 

feared  not  only  political  bondage  to  France,  but  the  spread 
throughout  America  of  French  atheistical  views.  Only  now 
and  then  did  a  minister,  on  these  fast-day  occasions  when 
politics  were  permitted,  stand  up  for  his  President.  Such  a 
one  was  the  Reverend  John  Giles,  Presbyterian,  of  New- 
buryport;  and  such  another  was  Solomon  Aiken,  pastor  of 
the  First  Church  in  Dracutt,  who  issued  "an  address  to 
Federal  clergymen  on  the  subject  of  the  war,"  and  vigor- 
ously showed  them  which  way  lay  true  patriotism.  "Some 
of  you,"  he  said,  "treat  our  Christian  rulers  with  more  free- 
dom than  what  Michael  thought  decent,  or  even  dared,  to 
treat  the  devil." 

These  fast-day  exhibitions  of  public  feeling  gradually 
gave  way  to  a  more  reconciled  state  of  mind,  as  the  for- 
tunes of  war  favored  us  more.  And  when  President  Madi- 
son proclaimed  April  13,  1815,  as  a  National  Thanksgiving 
Day,  even  his  pulpit  critics  who  had  opposed  him  most 
bitterly  and  hampered  his  policy  all  they  could  throughout 
the  war,  found  a  good  deal  to  be  thankful  for.  With  the 
exception  of  the  Thanksgivings  of  i863~'64,  that  of  April 
13,  1815,  was  the  most  notable  in  the  history  of  the  United 
States. 

In  one  of  President  Roosevelt's  Thanksgiving  proclama- 
tions there  is  a  striking  sentence.  Each  generation,  he  says, 
in  the  more  than  the  century  and  a  quarter  which  have 
passed'  since  this  country  took  its  place  among  the  nations, 
"has  had  its  peculiar  burdens,  each  to  face  its  special  crisis, 
and  each  has  known  years  of  grim  trial,  when  the  country 
was  menaced  by  malice,  domestic  or  foreign  levy,  when  the 
hand  of  the  Lord  was  heavy  upon  it  in  drouth  or  flood  or 
pestilence,  when  in  bodily  distress  and  anguish  of  soul  it 
paid  the  penalty  of  folly  and  a  froward  heart."  President 
Roosevelt  wrote  his  own  proclamations ;  there  can  be  no 


SOME   THANKSGIVING   CONTRASTS.  273 

doubt  of  that.  He  is  a  historian ;  and  when  he  sweeps  the 
past  years  in  a  single  sentence,  he  is  thinking  of  specific 
things  in  our  history.  "Menaced  by  malice"  is  no  mere 
phrase.  American  progress  has  always  been  more  delayed 
and  endangered  by  internal  strife  than  by  any  act  of  other 
nations.  We  are  more  at  peace  now,  among  ourselves,  than 
ever  before.  Curiously  enough,  the  bitterest  strife  of  past 
years  finds  its  most  intemperate  record  in  fast-day  and 
Thanksgiving-day  sermons. 

Nothing  is  more  significant,  in  the  history  of  our  people, 
than  the  decline  of  the  fast.  Good  Catholics  and  orthodox 
Hebrews  continue  faithful  in  the  observance  of  fasts  pre- 
scribed in  their  churches.  There  are  fasts  for  the  Protestant 
Episcopalians;  but  taking  that  denomination  as  a  whole, 
there  is  less  insistence  on  abstaining  from  food  than  for- 
merly. As  for  the  multitude  of  sects,  for  the  most  part, 
they  do  not  fast.  The  tendency  of  the  time  is  simply  that  of 
al!  peoples  who  are  prosperous.  The  last  great  fasts  in 
American  history  were  observed  in  the  dark  days  of  the 
Civil  War.  If  this  country  should  be  once  more  plunged 
into  such  deep  trouble,  the  fast  day  would  no  doubt  reap- 
pear as  essentially  a  national  observance.  The  first  national 
Thanksgiving  proclamation  was  issued  by  President  Lincoln 
in  1863;  the  second  in  1864,  after  the  triumphs  of  the 
Union  forces.  There  was  a  spirit  of  earnestness  in  the 
Thanksgiving  services  then  that  has  disappeared  from  them 
now.  This  is  no  reproach ;  it  is  human  nature.  We  are  too 
prosperous  to  observe  days  of  supplication  and  fasting,  too 
free  from  great  calamity  to  be  anything  more  than  just 
placidly  thankful.  The  so-called  decline  of  Thanksgiving 
1-2-  but  an  index  of  national  well  being.  It  does  not  mean 
that  the  people  are  grown  irreligious. 

Turning  to  recent  years,  it  is  instructive  to  observe  how 


274  SOME   THANKSGIVING   CONTRASTS. 

the  keynote,  the  special  bequest  of  different  Thanksgivings 
varies,  as  shown  in  the  proclamations. 

Thus  in  1883,  Grover  Cleveland,  then  Governor  of  the 
State,  found  as  a  special  cause  for  the  people's  gratitude, 
"that  the  supremacy  of  law  and  order  has  been  complete," 
and  "we  have  advanced  in  all  that  pertains  to  the  material, 
social  and  educational  interests  of  our  people."  The  year 
before  this  Governor  Cornell  had  mentioned  as  a  special 
blessing  that  the  "tide  of  immigration  to  our  shores  has 
been  unprecedented."  This  view  would  hardly  prompt  a 
special  thanksgiving  today. 

Governor  David  B.  Hill,  in  1885,  called  upon  the  people 
to  give  thanks  because  "political  rights  have  been  enjoyed 
without  infringement  from  any  source." 

Governor  Flower,  in  1893,  found  special  reason  for 
gratitude  because  the  "State  had  been  spared  serious  conflict 
between  employers  and  employes." 

Each  of  these  shows  in  a  measure  the  issue  which  had 
engaged  the  attention  of  the  public  and  on  which,  more  or 
less,  party  lines  had  been  drawn,  or  a  subject  of  general 
discussion  and  common  concern. 

In  1889  Governor  Roosevelt  in  a  proclamation,  which 
was  as  unconventional  and  individual  as  are  all  of  his  utter- 
ances, saw  reason  for  thanksgiving  because  "each  man  has 
been  permitted  to  live  his  life  and  do  his  work  as  seemed 
best  to  him,  provided  only  that  he  in  no  wise  interfered 
with  the  liberty  and  well  being  of  his  fellows."  "It  is 
right,"  he  added,  "that  we  should  give  thanks  for  the  pros- 
perity that  has  come  to  the  nation  and  for  the  way  in  which 
this  great  people  in  the  first  flush  of  its  mighty  manhood  is 
moving  forward  to  meet  its  destiny  and  to  do  without  flinch- 
ing every  duty  with  which  that  destiny  brings  it  face  to 
face." 


SOME    THANKSGIVING   CONTRASTS.  275 

The  Thanksgiving  proclamations  of  President  Roosevelt 
and  Governor  Hughes,  and  some  other  of  the  present  gov- 
ernors of  States,  well  establish,  from  an  historical  point  of 
view,  the  fact  that  this  country  is  absolutely  at  peace,  undis- 
turbed by  any  menace  to  its  prosperity.  Whenever  that 
menace  has  arisen,  the  thought  of  those  in  authority  has 
found  definite  expression,  so  that  we  may  see  in  the  old 
proclamations  just  what  were  the  evils  from  which  deliver- 
ance was  sought  or  the  specific  blessings  for  which  the 
nation's  gratitude  was  due. 

If  the  future  historian  of  this  country  were  to  have  no 
other  sources  of  information  than  the  Thanksgiving  proc- 
lamations, he  could  not  write  much  of  a  history,  but  he 
could  state  with  confidence  two  important  facts : 

First:  That  the  American  people  (notwithstanding  the 
clamor  of  political  strife,  the  conflicts  of  labor,  and  all  the 
difficult  problems  of  our  day)  are  at  this  time  really  very 
prosperous  and  with  ample  grounds  for  happiness  and 
gratitude. 

Second:  That  the  idea  of  personal  responsibility — the 
national  valuation  of  individual  conduct  towards  the  state  as 
towards  one's  fellows — has  come  to  the  front,  as  never 
before  in  the  history  of  this  Nation. 


ON   THE   NIAGARA  FRONTIER 
WITH    HARRIET  MARTINEAU 


^  1  A  HERE  recently  came  into  the  possession  of  the  Buffalo 
Historical  Society  the  original  manuscript  of  a  long 
letter  written  by  Harriet  Martineau,  at  Niagara  Falls,  in 
1834.  It  was  addressed  to  her  friend  the  Rev.  Charles 
Brooks,  at  "Hingham  near  Boston,  Massachusetts."  As  it 
has  never  been  published,  and  as  it  is  in  part  an  interesting 
bit  of  Niagara  literature,  I  deem  it  worthy  a  place  in  these 
records.  The  letter  itself  is  something  of  a  curiosity; 
written  in  a  light  angular  hand  on  thin  paper,  covering  both 
sides  of  the  folded  sheets  and  then  cross-written,  from  side 
to  side  and  from  top  to  bottom,  in  a  very  maze  of  thrifty 
and  exasperating  chirography.  The  only  portion  of  the 
sheets  not  closely  criss-crossed,  is  a  space  on  the  back  for 
the  address — for  this  was  before  the  days  of  envelopes,  and 
the  precious  pages  were  folded  after  a  fashion  which  is 
now  a  lost  art,  and  fastened  with  red  wafers. 

Few  of  our  early  visitors — especially  of  our  early 
English  visitors — have  been  so  affable,  so  gracious  without 
condescension,  as  Harriet  Martineau.  When  she  came  to 
America  in  the  summer  of  1834,  she  was  thirty-two  years 
of  age,  and  for  ten  years  had  had  a  growing  reputation  as 
a  writer  and  a  vigorous,  remarkably  clear-minded  young 
woman.  Her  first  book,  "Devotional  Exercises  for  the  use 
of  Young  Persons,"  was  not  of  a  sort  likely  to  gain  wide 


278  ON   THE  NIAGARA    FRONTIER 

popularity.  In  1830  she  won  three  prizes  offered  by  the 
Central  Unitarian  Association  for  as  many  essays  "designed 
to  convert  respectively  the  Catholics,  the  Jews  and  the 
Mohammedans.  The  essays,"  observes  an  acute  biographer, 
"probably  converted  nobody,  but  brought  in  forty-five 
guineas."  She  had  won  some  measure  of  popularity  by  her 
stories,  and  genuine  respect  for  her  ability  by  her  "Illustra- 
tions of  Political  Economy"  and  "Illustrations  of  Taxa- 
tion," when,  in  1834,  she  sailed  for  America.  Here  she  was 
less  interested  in  the  obvious  phases  of  our  society  and  our 
scenery,  than  in  the  great  problems  which  then  engaged  the 
thought  of  political  and  social  leaders  in  the  United  States. 
On  her  return  to  England  in  1836  she  published  her  well- 
known  work,  "Society  in  America,"  and  followed  it  in  1838 
with  the  three-volume  "Retrospect  of  Western  Travel." 
She  designed  in  this  latter  work  to  picture  the  scenery  and 
the  lighter  phases  of  her  journeyings;  but  at  her  lightest 
Miss  Martineau  was  never  anything  but  serious;  and  her 
criticisms  of  slavery,  as  she  had  observed  it  in  her  travels, 
won  for  her  "Retrospect"  some  pretty  harsh  criticism.  Had 
she  come  to  us  twenty  years  later  she  would  have  found 
the  Abolition  movement  better  organized,  and  would  have 
been  greeted  by  warm  sympathizers. 

I  revert  to  her  "Retrospect"  because  it  is  one  of  the  best 
books  we  have,  for  its  period.  It  pictures  America  to  us 
as  it  was  seen  in  1834  by  a  person  who  was  absolutely 
without  prejudice  and  who  never  became  hysterical.  Miss 
Martineau  was  very  deaf,  and  thereby  may  have  been 
spared  some  small  unpleasantnesses ;  but  she  seems  to  have 
had  a  singularly  judicial  cast  of  mind.  She  loved  justice 
as  well  as  she  loved  philosophy;  and  the  lapse  of  more 
than  three  quarters  of  a  century  has  not  taken  from  her 
pages  their  worth  or  attractiveness.  In  later  years  her 


WITH  HARRIET  MARTINEAU.  279 

work  grew  more  and  more  grave.  In  1853  she  published  a 
condensation  of  Comte's  "Positive  Philosophy,"  followed 
by  a  "History  of  England  during  the  Thirty  Years'  Peace" 
and  other  works  of  learning  and  merit.  Her  voluminous 
"Autobiography"  is  one  of  the  most  candid  records  we  have 
of  an  ardent  life  pledged  to  high  ideals.  Able  biographers 
have  long  since  sought  to  do  justice  to  this  gifted,  high- 
minded  woman.  I  here  merely  seek  to  recall  to  the  student 
of  our  regional  history  her  visits  and  what  she  wrote  of  us. 
The  "Retrospect"  contains  a  lively  chapter  on  Buffalo, 
and  another  and  longer  one  on  Niagara  Falls.  Miss  Mar- 
tineau  visited  the  Falls  in  October,  1834,  and  again  in  June, 
1836.  It  was  during  her  first  visit  that  she  wrote  the  letter 
I  am  about  to  quote  from.  First,  however,  I  wish  to  copy 
from  her  pages  a  narrative  of  the  burning  of  Buffalo,  told 
to  her  by  one  who  had  shared  in  the  experiences  described 
It  is  a  record  worthy  a  place  in  Buffalo's  annals  of  the  War 
of  1812.  I  give  it  as  Miss  Martineau  wrote  it  down — 
seated,  she  tells  us,  with  a  friend,  "a  lady  of  Buffalo,  who 
happens  to  be  a  good  walker,"  on  the  ruins  of  Fort  Erie; 
and  I  reserve  a  word  or  two  of  comment  or  correction  until 
the  end: 

At  the  time  of  the  War  of  1812,  Mrs.  W.  lived  in 
Buffalo,  with  her  father,  mother,  brothers,  and  sisters.  In 
1814,  just  when  the  war  was  becoming  terrific  on  the 
frontier,  her  father  and  eldest  brother  were  drowned  in 
crossing  the  neighboring  ferry.  Six  months  after  this 
incident,  the  danger  of  Buffalo  was  so  great  that  the 
younger  children  of  the  family  were  sent  away  into  the 
country  with  their  married  sister,  under  the  charge  of  their 
brother-in-law,  who  was  to  return  with  his  wagon  for  the 
mother  and  two  daughters  who  were  left  behind,  and  for 
the  clothes  of  the  family.  For  three  weeks  there  had  been 
so  strong  an  apprehension  of  a  descent  of  the  Indians,  the 


280  ON    THE   NIAGARA    FRONTIER 

barbarous  allies  of  the  British,  that  the  ladies  had  snatched 
sleep  with  their  clothes  on,  one  watching  while  the  others 
lay  down.  It  was  with  some  difficulty,  and  after  many 
delays,  that  the  wagon  party  got  away,  and  there  were  still 
doubts  whether  it  was  the  safer  course  to  go  or  stay. 
Nothing  was  heard  of  them  before  night,  however,  and  it 
was  hoped  that  they  were  safe,  and  that  the  wagon  would 
come  for  the  remaining  three  the  next  morning. 

The  ladies  put  out  their  lights  early,  as  they  were 
desired;  and  at  eight,  two  of  the  three  lay  down  to  sleep; 
Mrs.  W.,  then  a  girl  of  sixteen,  being  one.  At  nine,  she 
was  called  up  by  the  beating  of  a  drum,  the  signal  that  the 
Indians  were  at  hand.  No  description  can  give  an  idea  of 
the  loathing  with  which  these  savages  were  then  regarded, — 
the  mingled  horror,  disgust,  dread  and  hatred.  The  Indians 
were  insidious,  dangerous,  and  cruel  beyond  example,  even 
in  the  history  of  savage  warfare.  These  poor  ladies  had 
been  brought  up  to  hate  them  with  a  deadly  hatred;  they 
were  surrounded  with  persons  burning  with  the  injuries 
inflicted  by  Indian  revenge  and  barbarity;  for  weeks  they 
had  lived  in  hourly  dread  of  death  by  their  hands;  their 
strength  was  worn,  and  their  nerves  were  shaken  by  the 
long  suspense;  and  now  the  hoarse  drum  woke  them  up 
with  news  that  the  hour  was  come.  A  deadly  sickness 
overspread  their  hearts  as  they  started  from  their  beds. 
They  looked  from  their  windows,  but  could  see  nothing 
through  the  blank  darkness.  They  listened,  but  they  knew 
that  if  the  streets  had  been  quiet  as  death,  the  stealthy 
tread  of  the  savages  would  have  been  inaudible.  There 
was  a  bustle  in  the  town.  Was  the  fight  beginning?  No. 
It  was  an  express  sent  by  the  scouts  to  say  that  it  was  a 
false  alarm.  The  worn-out  ladies  composed  their  spirits, 
and  sank  to  sleep  again. 

At  four,  they  were  once  more  awakened  by  the  horrid 
drum,  and  now  there  was  a  mustering  in  the  streets  which 
looked  as  if  this  were  no  false  alarm.  In  the  same  moment, 
the  sister  who  was  watching  what  passed  in  the  street,  saw 
by  torchlight  the  militia  part  asunder  and  fly,  and  Mrs.  W., 


WITH   HARRIET  MARTINEAU.  281 

who  was  looking  through  the  back  window,  perceived  in 
the  uncertain  glimmer  that  a  host  of  savages  was  leaping 
the  garden-fence, — leaping  along  the  walks  to  the  house, 
like  so  many  kangaroos, — but  painted,  and  flourishing  their 
tomahawks.  She  cried  out  to  her  mother  and  sister,  and 
they  attempted  to  fly ;  but  there  was  no  time.  Before  they 
could  open  the  front  door,  the  back  windows  came  crashing 
in,  and  the  house  was  crowded  with  yelling  savages.  With 
their  tomahawks,  they  destroyed  everything  but  the  ladies, 
who  put  on  the  most  submissive  air  possible.  The  trunks 
containing  the  clothing  of  the  whole  family  stood  in  the 
hall,  ready  to  be  carried  away  when  the  wagon  should 
arrive.  These  were  split  to  fragments  by  the  tomahawk. 
These  wretches  had  actually  met  the  wagon,  with  the  rest 
of  the  family,  and  turned  it  back;  but  the  brother-in-law, 
watching  his  opportunity,  wheeled  off  from  the  road  when 
his  savage  guards  were  somewhat  engaged,  and  escaped. 

The  ladies  were  seized,  and  as  Mrs.  W.  claimed  pro- 
tection, they  were  delivered  into  the  charge  of  some  squaws 
to  be  driven  to  the  British  camp.  It  was  unpleasant  enough, 
the  being  goaded  on  through  such  a  scene  by  savage  women, 
as  insolent  as  the  men  were  cruel ;  but  the  ladies  soon  saw 
that  this  was  the  best  thing  that  could  have  happened  to 
them ;  for  the  town  was  burning  in  various  directions,  and 
soon  no  alternative  would  be  left  between  being  in  the 
British  camp  and  in  the  thick  of  the  slaughter  in  the  burn- 
ing streets.  The  British  officer  did  not  wish  to  have  his 
hands  full  of  helpless  female  prisoners.  He  sent  them  home 
again  with  a  guard  of  an  ensign  and  a  private,  who  had 
orders  to  prevent  their  house  being  burned.  The  ensign 
had  much  to  do  to  fulfil  his  orders.  He  stood  in  the  door- 
way, commanding,  persuading,  struggling,  threatening;  but 
he  saved  the  house,  which  was,  in  two  days,  almost  the  only 
one  left  standing.  The  whole  town  was  a  mass  of  smoking 
ruins,  in  many  places  slaked  with  blood.  Opposite  the  door 
lay  the  body  of  a  woman  who  in  her  despair  had  drunk 
spirits,  and  then  defied  the  savages.  They  tomahawked  her, 
in  sight  of  the  neighbors,  and  before  her  own  door,  and  her 


282  ON   THE   NIAGARA   FRONTIER 

body  lay  where  it  had  fallen ;   for  there  were  none  to  bury 
the  dead. 

Before  the  fire  was  quite  burned  out,  the  Indians  were 
gone,  and  the  inhabitants  began  to  creep  back  into  the 
town,  cold  and  half  dead  with  hunger.  The  ladies  kept  up 
a  large  fire  (carefully  darkening  the  windows),  and  cooked 
for  the  settlers,  till  they  were  too  weary  to  stand,  and  one 
at  a  time  lay  down  to  sleep  before  the  fire.  Mrs.  W.  often 
during  those  dreary  days  used  to  fasten  a  blanket,  Indian 
fashion,  about  her  shoulders,  and  go  out  into  the  wintry 
night,  to  forage  for  food, — a  strange  employment  for  a 
young  girl  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  savage  foe.  She  traced 
the  hogs  in  the  snow,  and  caught  many  fowls  in  the  dark. 
On  the  third  day,  very  early  in  the  morning,  six  Buffalo 
men  were  enjoying  a  breakfast  of  her  cooking,  when  the 
windows  were  again  broken  in,  and  the  house  once  more 
full  of  savages.  They  had  come  back  to  burn  and  pillage 
all  that  was  left.  The  six  men  fled,  and,  by  a  natural 
impulse,  the  girl  with  them.  At  some  distance  from  the 
house,  she  looked  behind  her,  and  saw  a  savage  leaping 
towards  her,  with  his  tomahawk  already  raised.  She  saw 
that  the  next  instant  it  would  be  buried  in  her  skull.  She 
faced  about,  burst  out  laughing,  and  held  out  both  her  hands 
to  the  savage.  His  countenance  changed,  first  to  per- 
plexity; but  he  swerved  his  weapon  aside,  laughed,  and 
shook  hands,  but  motioned  her  homewards.  She  was  full 
of  remorse  for  having  quitted  her  mother  and  sister. 
When  she  reached  her  door,  the  house  was  so  crowded  that 
she  could  neither  make  her  way  in,  nor  learn  anything  of 
their  fate.  Under  the  persuasion  that  they  lay  murdered 
within,  she  flew  to  some  British  dragoons  who  were  sitting 
on  the  ground  at  a  considerable  distance,  watching  the 
burning  of  the  remainder  of  the  town.  They  expressed 
their  amazement  that  she  should  have  made  her  way 
through  the  savages,  and  guarded  her  home,  where  they 
procured  an  entrance  for  her,  so  that  she  reached  the  arms 
of  her  patient  and  suffering  mother  and  sister.  The  house 
was,  at  length,  the  only  one  left  standing;  and  when  we 
returned,  Mrs.  W.  pointed  it  out  to  me. 


WITH   HARRIET  MARTINEAU.  283 

The  settlers  remained  for  some  time  in  the  woods,  steal- 
ing in  to  a  midnight  warming  and  supper  at  the  lone  abode 
of  the  widow  and  her  daughters.  The  ladies  had  nothing 
left  but  this  dwelling.  Their  property  had  been  in  houses 
which  were  burned,  and  their  very  clothes  were  gone.  The 
settlers  had,  however,  carried  off  their  money  with  them 
safely  into  the  woods.  They  paid  the  ladies  for  their  hospi- 
tality, and  afterwards  for  as  much  needlework  as  they  could 
do ;  for  every  one  was  in  want  of  clothes.  By  their  indus- 
try these  women  raised  themselves  to  independence,  which 
the  widow  lived  some  tranquil  years  to  enjoy.  The  daugh- 
ter who  told  the  story  is  now  the  lady  of  a  Judge.  She 
never  boasts  of  her  bravery,  and  rarely  refers  to  her  ad- 
ventures in  the  war;  but  preserves  all  her  readiness  and 
strength  of  mind,  and  in  the  silence  of  her  own  heart,  or 
in  the  ear  of  a  sympathizing  friend,  gratefully  contrasts  the 
perils  of  her  youth  with  the  milder  discipline  of  her  riper 
age. 

The  "Mrs.  W."  of  this  narrative  was  Sarah,  daughter  of 
Gamaliel  and  Margaret  St.  John,  who  became  the  wife  of 
Samuel  Wilkeson.  Miss  Martineau's  dates  are  wrong,  the 
events  described  being  at  the  burning  of  Buffalo,  December 
30,  1813,  and  days  following.  Certain  other  inaccuracies 
may  best  be  corrected  by  referring  the  reader  to  the  narra- 
tives of  Mrs.  Wilkeson's  sisters,  Mrs.  Sidway  and  Mrs. 
Skinner,  published  in  volume  IX.,  Publications  of  the 
Buffalo  Historical  Society. 

Miss  Martineau  tarried  in  Buffalo  long  enough  to  note 
several  things  of  significance.  She  thought  Buffalo  an  un- 
desirable place  of  residence,  because  of  the  many  rough 
characters  that  gathered  here.  "It  is  the  rendezvous  of  all 
manner  of  persons;  the  passage  through  which  fugitives 
pass  from  the  States  to  Canada,  from  Canada  to  the 
States,  and  from  Europe  and  the  Eastern  States  into  the 
wild  West.  Runaway  slaves  come  here,  and  their  owners 


284  ON   THE   NIAGARA    FRONTIER 

follow  in  hopes  of  recapturing  them.  Indian  traders,  land 
speculators,  and  poor  emigrants  come  here,  and  the  most 
debased  Indians,  the  half-civilized,  hang  about  the  outskirts. 
.  .  .  The  place  is  unavoidably  a  very  vicious  one."  For 
her  other  observations  in  Buffalo,  at  Fort  Erie  and  Niagara 
Falls,  I  must  refer  the  reader  to  her  own  pages ;  and  sub- 
mit without  further  comment  a  letter  which  she  wrote,  as 
above  described,  omitting  portions  of  no  general  interest, 
but  adhering  to  Miss  Martineau's  peculiarities  of  style: 

NIAGARA  FALLS,  Octbr  iQth,  1834. 

DEAR  FRIENDS  (for  I  know  Mrs.  B.  will  let  me  address 
her  thus) — I  can  not  hope  that  you  have  been  thinking  of 
us  as  often  as  we  have  of  you,  but  yet  you  may  have  begun 
to  look  for  a  letter  to  tell  how  we  like  your  country  &  your 
people,  so  far.  On  our  part,  we  hope  that  you  are  now  so 
far  settled  down  into  your  usual  habits  of  life  that  a  full 
sheet  will  not  come  in  upon  you  as  an  interruption.  How 
we  did  think  of  you  both  on  the  day  of  your  meeting  and  on 
the  next  Sunday!  And  now  we  want  to  know  what  you 
are  doing,  &  whether  you  will  write  to  tell  us.  A  letter 
addressed  to  us  at  Mr.  [name  illegible],  Philadelphia,  be- 
tween the  loth  &  25th  of  next  month,  will  be  sure  to  reach 
us  &  we  shall  be  truly  thankful  for  it.  A  newspaper  wh 
I  have  just  taken  up  tells  me  that  I  am  now  at  Boston — a 
thing  not  to  be  believed  even  on  such  assurance  while  the 
roar  of  these  falls  is  in  my  ears.  You  will  not  expect  me 
tc  wish  to  be  anywhere  but  where  I  am,  but  indeed  I  should 
like  to  spend  an  hour  by  your  evening  fireside  and  hear 
what  is  doing  in  Hingham.  Well,  let  us  hope  the  time  will 
come. 

If  I  did  but  know  where  to  begin,  I  sh'd  like  to  tell  you 
what  I  think  of  what  I  have  seen, — secure  that  you  will  not 
betray  me  by  repeating  as  my  opinions  what  can  be  no  more 
than  first  impressions.  I  will  just  go  on  till  my  paper  is  full 
&  leave  the  rest  for  some  future  time.  First,  let  me  dis- 
charge a  duty,  as  well  as  give  myself  &  you  pleasure  by 


WITH   HARRIET  MARTINEAU.  285 

reporting  of  my  companion,  Louisa  Jeffery.  I  am  really 
delighted  with  her,  &  my  esteem  &  regard  for  her  grow 
every  day.  Our  popularity  so  far  I  consider  to  be  much 
owing  to  the  cheerfulness  &  pleasantness  of  her  manners. 
No  difficulty  or  fatigue  seems  to  have  any  effect  upon  her. 
She  is  as  careful  of  me  as  my  mother  herself  cd  be,  &  as 
a  companion,  she  is  all  I  c'd  wish;  so  great  is  her  good 
sense  joined  with  much  cultivation  of  mind.  I  believe  that 
she  is  much  liked  wherever  we  have  been  &  am  sure  she 
ought  to  be. 

We  have  had  such  a  month  of  enjoyment.  We  are  in 
love  with  travelling;  &  I  really  hope  in  spite  of  the  contra- 
dictions between  what  we  hear  &  what  we  see  to  learn 
more  of  man  &  get  more  light  upon  social  morals  than  I 
anticipated,  &  Mr.  B.  knows  how  much  I  expected.  From 
New  York  we  went  to  Paterson  &  saw  the  falls  of  the 
Passaic,  &  a  pleasant  manufacturer's  family,  where  we 
were  kindly  entertained  &  taught  much  of  what  life  is  like 
in  such  a  place.  Then  from  New  York  to  West  Point, 
where  we  saw  Washington  Irving,  &  some  curious  &  some 
interesting  human  specimens  besides,  &  where  I  was  driven 
half  delirious  by  the  beauty  of  the  scene.  Then  up  to 
Tivoli  where  we  staid  three  days  with  the  Elmendorfs  & 
saw  much  of  the  neighboring  country.  Then  to  Stock- 
bridge,  where  we  staid  with  the  Sedgwick  clan  for  some 
time, — so  happy  that  we  scarcely  expect  to  enjoy  ourselves 
more  in  all  our  lives.  I  am  sure  Stockbridge  can  be  no 
fair  specimen  of  a  village  in  any  country.  I  never  saw  any 
thing  to  compare  with  it  for  its  union  of  the  charms  of 
scenery  &  Society.  The  presence  of  Miss  Sedgwick  alone 
is  blessing  enough  for  any  one  place;  but  the  whole  clan 
seems  worthy  of  her.  You  will  rejoice  to  hear  that  we  are 
not  only  to  meet  her  again  in  Philadelphia,  but  that  she  & 
her  eldest  brother  will  travel  with  us  all  thro'  the  West 
next  spring. 

At  Albany,  we  joined  Dr.  Julius,  his  two  friends,  Messrs. 
Oppenheim  &  Sillen,  &  Mr.  Higham,  for  our  journey  to  the 
falls.  Miss  Sedgwick  w'd  fain  have  gone,  but  a  call  of  duty 


286  ON   THE  NIAGARA   FRONTIER 

at  home  prevented  her,  besides  that  she  had  already  taken 
the  journey  this  year.  At  Albany,  Mr.  Van  Buren  called 
on  me.  I  had  letters  to  him  at  Washington,  but  I  was  glad 
to  begin  our  acquaintance  earlier  that  I  might  be  able  to 
unravel  some  of  the  contradictions  that  we  hear  about  him 
wherever  we  go.  He  was  kind  &  communicative,  took 
pains  to  provide  for  my  seeing  Auburn  properly,  &  held 
out  the  prospect  of  much  further  intercourse  at  Wash- 
ington. 

Our  happy  party  arrived  here  last  Tuesday  after  a 
delightful  week's  journey,  comprehending  days  at  Trenton 
Falls,  Auburn,  &  Canandaigua.  We  saw  all  the  beautiful 
scenery  by  the  way,  except  a  part  of  the  valley  of  the 
Mohawk,  wh  we  passed  in  the  canal  boat  in  the  dark. 
Louisa  &  I  wished  to  make  out  a  week  here,  not  being  able 
to  understand  how  people  persuade  themselves  that  they 
have  seen  the  Falls  by  staying  two  days.  Our  companions 
c'd  not  remain  so  long,  and  were  obliged  to  return  by  dif- 
ferent routes;  so  Higham,  &  Oppenheim  set  out  for  New 
York  on  Friday  &  Dr.  Julius  &  Mr.  Sillen  for  Toronto 
yes*.  We  go  back  to  Buffalo  tomorrow  for  some  days  & 
then  proceed  to  take  possession  of  Gen'l  Mason's  house  at 
Detroit,  where  his  son,  who  is  Govr  of  Michigan  will  take 
care  that  we  get  a  palaver  with  Indians,  &  all  else  that  we 
want.  Crossing  the  Lake  to  Cleveland,  we  go  by  Pittsburg 
to  Philadelphia.  We  might  go  through  all  our  adventures 
in  white  satin  shoes,  for  besides  that  I  have  abundance  of 
letters,  the  principal  people  of  every  place  call  upon  me  & 
the  only  fear  seems  to  be  that  I  sh'd  be  overwhelmed  with 
kindness. 

I  was  amused  at  a  message  from  the  Mayor  of  Buffalo 
(whose  name  I  do  not  yet  know).  We  arrived  at  dark  & 
left  early  next  morning,  but  he  conveyed  his  regrets  that 
he  did  not  hear  of  my  arrival  for  two  hours  ( !)  after  I 
alighted,  when  he  thought  it  w'd  be  too  late  to  call,  but 
means  to  await  my  return.  The  only  thing  of  this  kind  that 
has  vexed  me  is  its  having  been  said  in  the  newspapers  that 
I  am  rich,  a  mistake  wh  can  not  but  cause  me  inconvenience. 


WITH   HARRIET  MARTINEAU.  287 

I  will  talk  over  the  Falls  with  Mr.  B.  when  we  meet. 
As  you,  Mr.  B.,  have  not  seen  them,  I  shall  not  talk  here 
of  their  unimaginable  beauty.  It  is  this  beauty,  soft  beyond 
all  names  of  softness,  wh  strikes  me  much  more  than  their 
grandeur,  though  I  have  been  over  them  &  under  them, 
looked  at  them  from  every  side. 

An  adventure  of  ours  yesy  will  give  you  an  idea  of  what 
we  do  to  see  the  country.  We  wanted  to  have  just  a  peep 
at  Ontario,  as  we  may  not  live  to  visit  it  next  year.  So  we 
went  to  Queenston  by  stage,  with  Dr.  Julius,  &  bade  him 
farewell  there,  intending  to  walk  back  (7^2  miles).  We 
got  a  package  of  sandwiches  &  a  bottle  of  cider  at  the  inn, 
in  order  to  have  as  much  time  as  possible  for  exploring. 
We  carried  our  prog  to  Gen'l  Brock's  monum1  wh  we, 
ascended,  full  of  astonishment  that  we  had  heard  so  little 
of  the  splendid  scene  wh  lay  below  us.  I  w'd  almost  as 
soon  have  passed  by  the  Falls  in  the  night  as  have  omitted 
this  view  of  the  strait,  the  lake,  forests,  villages  &  (alas!) 
battle  grounds.  The  portress,  a  nice  little  Yorkshire 
woman,  was  delighted  to  see  countrywomen,  &  made  us  eat 
our  dinner  in  her  cottage,  where  she  told  us  all  her  affairs. 
When  we  had  seen  everything  &  were  setting  out  on  our 
walk  home,  a  country  wagon,  driven  by  a  fine  lad,  passed, 
&  he  asked  us  to  let  him  drive  us  to  the  falls,  as  he  was 
going  as  far  as  Chippewa.  We  were  glad  of  such  an 
opporty  of  learning  something  of  Canada  farming  so  we 
jumped  in;  whereby  we  escaped  a  thorough  wetting,  saw 
a  new  road,  &  learned  all  that  the  lad  c'd  tell  us, — he  being 
amused  all  the  while,  instead  of  hav'g  a  solitary  ride.  This 
will  do,  won't  it? 

I  am  apt  to  forget  that  we  are  in  Canada  till  the  boarders 
here  &  our  host  begin  their  cruel  remarks  on  their  neighbors 
over  the  water, — the  narrow  limit  wh  sh'd  not  divide  men's 
hearts.  I  almost  think  that  the  host  must  speak  to  please 
his  British  guests,  or  he  c'd  not  be  so  hard  as  he  is.  They 
all  seem  to  vie  with  each  other  in  abusing  the  Americans,  & 
agreed  at  breakfast  this  morning  that  Mrs.  Trollope's  book 
is  the  truest,  &  it  only  stops  short  of  the  truth.  Some  of 


288  ON   THE  NIAGARA   FRONTIER 

these  people  are  really  superior  people,  &  they  say  they  were 
delighted  with  the  States  when  they  first  travelled  through 
them.  When  they  appeal  to  us,  &  we  can  only  say  that  we 
have  not  seen  the  enormities  they  speak  of,  they  look  at  one 
another  with  smiles,  as  much  as  to  say  that  we  shall  soon 
grow  wiser.  One  silly  man  acknowledges  that  there  is  more 
refinement  of  mind  &  manner  than  among  the  Engh  gen- 
erally, but  fears  that  religion  has  a  poor  chance,  since  so 
much  political  independence  must  make  men  think  them- 
selves independent  of  God !  There  is  a  new  idea  for  you ! 
At  least  it  is  quite  new  to  us. 

As  for  me, — if  I  may  say  what  I  feel  at  the  end  of  one 
month, — /  am  charmed.  No  one  thing  has  struck  us  both 
so  much  as  (what  I  have  never  heard  even  alluded  to  by 
our  countrymen)  that  freedom  &  ingenuousness  of  manners 
wh  belongs  only  to  a  society  remarkably  pure  in  its  morals. 
I  w'd  already  stake  all  the  knowledge  I  have  of  human 
nature  on  the  fact  that  the  morals  of  society  are  purer  here 
than  in  any  society  I  have  ever  been  in.  The  disagreeable 
instinct  by  which  the  presence  of  profligacy  is  indicated  has 
never  once  been  awakened ;  &  the  confidence  thus  inspired 
is  exhilarating  to  a  degree  I  cannot  describe.  We  cannot 
explain  this  to  the  boarders  here  and  we  must  therefore 
submit  to  their  anticipations  that  we  shall  grow  wiser  as 
we  travel  on.  Next  to  this  comes  the  universal  diffusion  of 
plenty  &  comfort,  &  the  growing  conviction  that  your  gov* 
is  as  wise  &  as  stable  as  I  believed  it  was.  The  more  I  read 
&  hear,  the  more  amused  I  am  at  all  alarms  about  your 
political  perils ;  &  I  shall  probably  feel  this  at  any  rate  till 
I  get  to  Washington.  At  present,  I  like  the  children,  their 
independence  &  extraordinary  efficiency  &  dexterity.  I 
cannot  judge  of  them  in  their  filial  relation  till  I  have  been 
more  in  private  houses. 

Now  for  what  I  do  not  like. — Your  newspapers  distress 
a  stranger.  Their  carping  spirit  &  abusive  language  disgust 
me  more  than  anything  I  almost  ever  met  with.  I  mean  to 
get  at  the  bottom  of  this.  Then — we  were  on  board  the 
canal  boat  with  a  party  of  clergymen  going  to  Utica — some 


WITH   HARRIET  MARTINEAU.  289 

of  them  missionaries;  &  their  praying  &  saying  grace  all 
day,  their  stories  of  special  judgments,  &  criticisms  of  their 
neighbours  realized  all  I  had  ever  read  of  bigotry  &  cant. 
But  there  is  much  like  this  in  England.  It  does  not  belong 
to  the  country, — unless  indeed  it  be  the  ignorant  &  silly 
questions  wh  were  asked  about  the  Chinese,  &  foolishly 
answered  by  a  missionary  from  China.  I  can  hardly 
imagine  any  disciple  in  Eng*1  asking  if  the  Chinese  are  can- 
nibals. Tobacco  is  a  grievance,  of  course ;  &  now  and  then 
we  are  struck  with  a  little  coldness  of  manner:  but  all  this 
is  nothing  in  comparison  with  the  hearty  hospitality  &  un- 
varying consideration  &  kindness  we  have  met  with:  still 
less  with  the  innocence  wh  I  have  spoken  of  as  the  pre- 
vailing charm.  As  to  domestic  accommodations,  we  are 
only  surprised  at  their  completeness,  considering  how  new 
a  country  we  are  in.  Here  are,  in  brief,  my  impressions. 
I  shall  have  much  more  to  say,  &  with  more  confidence, 
when  I  have  been  settled  in  a  town  for  a  month  together. 
.  .  .  My  mother  writes  delightfully,  persuading  me  that 
she  is  happy  without  me.  It  was  a  great  comfort  to  her 
while  writing,  she  says,  to  remember  that  you  were  on 
board,  dear  Mrs.  B. 

Farewell  now.  Louisa  sends  her  kind  regards.  Believe 
me  ever  most  truly  &  gratefully  yours 

H.  MARTINEAU. 

Up  to  the  hour  of  our  leaving  N.  York,  we  were  obliged 
to  your  brother  for  much  kind  attention. 

The  Mayor  of  Buffalo  in  1834,  whose  courtesy  Miss 
Martineau  mentions,  was  Ebenezer  Johnson. 

I  conclude  these  notes  with  the  following  letter  which 
Miss  Martineau  wrote  at  this  time  to  her  mother.  It  has 
been  published,  in  her  "Autobiography,"  but  deserves  a 
place  in  our  collection: 

NIAGARA,  October  14. 

.  .  .  You  must  not  expect  a  description  from  me. 
One  might  as  well  give  an  idea  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
by  images  of  jasper  and  topazes  as  of  what  we  have  been 


290  WITH  HARRIET  MARTINEAU. 

seeing  by  writing  of  hues  and  dimensions.  Except  the 
hurricane  at  sea,  it  is  the  only  sight  I  ever  saw  that  I  had 
utterly  failed  to  imagine.  It  is  not  its  grandeur  that  strikes 
me  so  much;  but  its  unimaginable  beauty.  All  images  of 
softness  fail  before  it.  Think  of  a  double  rainbow  issuing 
from  a  rock  one  hundred  feet  below  one,  and  almost  com- 
pleting its  circle  by  nearly  lighting  on  one's  head.  The 
slowness  with  which  the  waters  roll  over  is  most  majestic. 
There  is  none  of  the  hurry  and  tumble  of  common  water- 
falls, but  the  green  transparent  mass  seems  to  ooze  over 
the  edges.  The  ascent  of  the  spray,  seen  some  miles  off, 
surprised  me ;  it  did  not  hang  like  a  cloud,  but  curled  vig- 
orously up,  like  the  smoke  from  a  cannon  or  a  new  fire. 
We  have  crossed  the  ferry,  and  done  more  than  in  my 
present  state  of  intoxication  I  can  well  remember  or  tell 
you  of.  On  the  spot,  I  felt  quite  sane — sure-footed  and 
reasonable;  but  when  I  sat  down  to  dinner,  I  found  what 
the  excitement  had  been.  I  could  not  tell  boiled  from  roast 
beef,  and  my  only  resource  was  to  go  out  again  as  soon  as 
we  could  leave  the  table;  and  now  I  am  very  sleepy.  I 
expected  I  should  be  disappointed,  and  told  Miss  Sedgwick 
so.  She  was  right  in  saying  that  it  was  impossible.  If  one 
looks  merely  at  a  cataract,  it  would  be  easy  to  say,  "Dear 
me !  I  could  fancy  a  rock  twice  as  high  as  that,  and  a  river 
twice  as  broad,"  but  I  could  not  think  any  imagination  could 
conceive  of  such  colouring;  and  I  was  wholly  unprepared 
for  the  beauty  of  the  surrounding  scenery.  Fragments  of 
rainbow  start  up  and  flit  and  vanish,  like  phantoms  at  a 
signal  from  the  sun.  We  have  watched  the  growth  of  this 
moon,  "the  Niagara  moon";  and  there  she  is,  at  her  very 
brightest!  What  a  pleasure  there  is  in  a  wholly  new  idea! 
It  never  occurred  to  me  before  that  there  can  never  be  a 
cloudless  sky  at  Niagara.  A  light  fleecy  rack  is  always  in 
the  sky  over  the  falls;  and  the  watcher  may  here  see  the 
process  of  cloud-making.  No  more  now.  Rejoice  with  me 
that  I  have  now  seen  the  best  that  my  eyes  can  behold  in 

this  life.     .     .     . 

Yours  most  affectionately, 

H.  MARTINEAU. 


HISTORY  THAT   ISN'T  SO 


T  T  7ITHOUT  aspiring  to  the  ranks  of  those  who  maintain 
that  there  is  no  truth  in  history ;  and  conceding  (to 
avoid  argument)  that  there  is  much  in  what  they  say,  I  am 
still  prompted  to  point  out  in  behalf  of  what  I  conceive  to 
be  history,  a  few  instances  which  really  have  no  warrant 
to  be  so  called.  I  would  shrink  from  the  role  of  the 
Schoolmaster  Abroad,  for  to  correct  other  people  is  usually 
as  futile  as  it  is,  to  me,  distasteful.  It  is  my  present  reflec- 
tion, however,  that  if  there  is  any  service  to  be  rendered  by 
seeking  out  and  setting  down  facts,  an  equal  service  may  be 
rendered  by  pointing  out  some  alleged  facts  which  are  only 
fiction. 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  doing  this  if  one  go  back  far 
enough.  While  it  might  be  embarrassing  to  accuse  a  living 
writer  of  mendacity,  there  is  no  trouble  at  all  about  it  if 
your  writer  has  been  dead  for  a  century  or  so.  In  such  a 
case  no  temper  is  aroused;  the  contention  usually  becomes 
merely  a  matter  of  mild  amusement. 

This  is  very  much  so  with  several  of  the  early  writers 
who  described  Niagara  Falls.  It  is  not  likely  they  deliber- 
ately tried  to  deceive  anybody;  a  traveler  must  have  a 
marvelous  tale  to  tell,  and  from  the  beginning  Niagara  has 
been  a  fount  of  inspiration.  Father  Hennepin's  account  of 
the  Falls  has  been  much  quoted.  Here  is  a  somewhat  later 
one,  that  of  the  Baron  La  Hontan,  which  I  like  better: 

"As  for  the  waterfall  of  Niagara;  'tis  seven  or  eight 
hundred  feet  high,  and  half  a  League  broad.  Towards  the 


292  HISTORY    THAT  ISN'T  SO. 

middle  of  it  we  descry  an  Island  that  leans  towards  the 
Precipice,  as  if  it  were  ready  to  fall.  All  the  Beasts  that 
cross  the  Water  within  half  a  quarter  of  a  League  above 
this  unfortunate  Island,  are  suck'd  in  by  force  of  the 
Stream:  And  the  Beasts  and  Fish  that  are  thus  kill'd  by 
the  prodigious  fall,  serve  for  food  to  fifty  Iroquese,  who  are 
settled  about  two  Leagues  off,  and  take  'em  out  of  the  water 
with  their  Canows.  Between  the  surface  of  the  water  that 
shelves  off  prodigiously,  and  the  foot  of  the  Precipice,  three 
Men  may  cross  in  a  breast  without  any  other  damage  than 
a  sprinkling  of  some  few  drops  of  water." 

This  is  the  most  satisfactory  description  of  Niagara  Falls 
I  know  of.  It  is  jaunty,  off-hand,  sufficiently  precise,  not 
too  long — and  how  suggestive!  That  it  hit  the  popular 
fancy,  and  even  that  of  scholars,  is  shown  by  the  following 
extract  from  an  old  English  geography: 

"Near  this  place  (Fort  Niagara)  there's  a  waterfall  in 
the  river,  which  runs  down  from  Lake  Conti  (Erie)  ;  'tis 
about  eight  hundred  foot  high,  and  half  a  league  broad. 
Towards  the  middle  there's  an  island  that  leans  toward  the 
precipice,  as  if  it  were  ready  to  fall  down.  All  the  beasts 
that  cross  the  water  for  a  mile  at  least  above  this  precipice 
are  sucked  down  by  the  stream  and  killed  by  the  Fall:  so 
that  fifty  Iroquese,  who  are  planted  near  it,  daily  wait  for 
them  in  their  canoes.  Under  this  cataract,  three  men  may 
pass  abreast  without  being  much  wet,  because  the  current 
falls  like  a  spout  over  their  heads." 

So  it  was  not  the  staid  and  trustworthy  Hennepin,  but 
the  devil-may-care  La  Hontan,  who  supplied  the  Niagara 
data  for  small  Britons  in  the  Eighteenth  century.  This 
shows  us  at  what  an  early  period  the  British  educational 
authorities  adopted  the  system  which  has  been  so  well 
characterized  by  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes:  "Ignorance  of 
America,"  says  the  genial  Doctor,  "is  one  of  the  branches 
taught  in  the  English  public  schools."  That  little  geography 


HISTORY   THAT  ISN'T  SO.  293 

lesson  also  illustrates  a  trait  of  human  nature.  La  Hontan 
said  the  falls  were  "seven  or  eight  hundred  feet  high."  The 
geography  maker,  who  drew  on  La  Hontan  for  his  infor- 
mation, made  them  "about  eight  hundred  feet  high."  Tell 
a  man  that  a  mountain  he  has  climbed  is  eight  to  ten  thou- 
sand feet  high,  and  how  high  do  you  suppose  it  is  when 
he  tells  of  his  exploit  ?  Never  a  foot  less  than  ten  thousand. 
Tell  a  woman  that  the  diamond  you  are  giving  her  cost 
between  $250  and  $500 — and  what  do  you  suppose  that 
diamond  cost,  when  she  shows  it  to  her  friends ! 

The  first  man  who  tried  to  measure  the  height  of  Niagara, 
by  eye,  estimated  that  they  were  from  150  to  200  feet;  by 
the  time  he  had  told  of  it  two  or  three  times,  he  said  they 
were  about  200  feet,  then  200  feet  or  more;  and  the 
hearer,  all  the  while  believing  that  he  was  giving  a  true 
report,  made  them  "two  or  three  hundred";  and  so  they 
grew  with  each  telling.  Having  got  up  to  800  feet,  the 
wonder  is  they  didn't  go  further.  Probably  some  one  came 
along  with  a  new  measurement. 

Oliver  Goldsmith  must  have  had  other  sources  of  infor- 
mation about  us  than  that  old  geography,  for  I  read  in  the 
account  of  Niagara  given  in  his  invaluable  "History  of  the 
Earth  and  Animated  Nature" :  "It  may  easily  be  conceived 
that  such  a  cataract  quite  destroys  the  navigation  of  the 
stream,  and  yet  some  Indian  canoes,  as  it  is  said,  have  been 
known  to  venture  down  it  with  safety."  This  bit  of  history 
carries  off  at  a  pen-stroke  all  the  laurels  of  Mrs.  Taylor 
and  the  redoubtable  Bobby  Leach. 

And,  as  my  friend  the  Baron  would  say,  as  for  going  over 
the  Falls,  the  student  should  by  no  means  overlook  that 
wonderful  treatise  by  Thomas  Carlyle:  "Shooting  Niagara 
— and  After,"  which  in  more  than  one  book-catalogue — 
those  seductive  works,  compiled  with  exceptional  acumen — 


294  HISTORY   THAT  ISN'T  SO. 

I  find  classified  with  works  relating  to  the  cataract.  How 
edifying  this  essay  of  Carlyle  may  prove  to  students  of  our 
great  natural  wonder,  I  leave  for  them  to  discover. 

The  literature  of  our  region  begins  with  a  blunder. 
Champlain  says  in  "Des  Sauvages" ':  "At  the  end  of  this 
lake" — i.  e.,  Ontario — "they  pass  a  fall,  somewhat  high  and 
with  but  little  water  flowing  over."  We  cannot  possibly 
believe  that — the  power  companies  had  not  arrived  in  1603. 
Perhaps  some  of  Champlain's  aboriginal  informants  were 
of  the  cautious  and  conservative  type,  men  of  the  stamp  of 
the  Rev.  Barzillai  Frost.  Edward  Everett  Hale  tells  the 
story;  and  although  it  is  quite  a  jump  from  Champlain  to 
Hale,  it  may  as  well  be  recorded  here.  Dr.  Hale  is  writing 
of  the  boyhood  of  James  Russell  Lowell,  a  portion  of  which 
was  passed  in  the  home  of  the  Rev.  Barzillai  Frost : 

"Imagine  the  boy  Lowell,  with  his  fine  sense  of  humor, 
listening  to  Mr.  Frost's  sermon  describing  Niagara  after  he 
had  made  the  unusual  journey  thither.  He  could  rise  at 
times  into  lofty  eloquence,  but  his  sense  of  truth  was  such 
that  he  would  not  go  a  hair's  breadth  beyond  what  he  was 
sure  of,  for  any  effect  of  rhetoric.  So  in  this  sermon,  which 
is  still  remembered,  he  describes  the  cataract  with  real 
feeling  and  great  eloquence.  You  had  the  mighty  flood  dis- 
charging the  waters  of  the  vast  lake  in  a  torrent  so  broad 
and  grand — and  then,  forgetting  the  precise  statistics,  he 
ended  the  majestic  sentence  with  the  words:  'and  several 
feet  deep.' " 

And  what  of  this,  as  a  contribution  to  human  knowl- 
edge: 

"The  Falls  of  Niagara  river  are  the  greatest  and  most 
sublime  curiosity  which  this  or  any  other  country  affords. 
.  .  .  The  noise  produced  by  this  cataract  is  sometimes 
heard  40  or  50  miles.  .  .  .  There  is  sufficient  space  be- 
tween the  perpendicular  rock  and  the  column  of  water  for 


HISTORY    THAT  ISN'T  SO.  295 

people  to  pass  in  perfect  safety.  .  .  .  Near  Burlington 
Bay  is  a  volcano,  subject  to  frequent  irruptions,  with  a  noise 
like  thunder.  The  Indians  sacrifice  to  the  Bad  Spirit  at 
this  place." 

This  description,  which  rather  carries  the  impression 
that  there  is  a  fine  popular  promenade  behind  the  falls,  is 
not,  as  one  might  suppose,  from  some  old  and  excusable 
author  of  a  couple  of  hundred  years  ago,  but  from  the 
sixteenth  edition  of  Morse's  "American  Universal  Geog- 
raphy," published  in  Boston  in  1815. 

As  for  that  active  volcano  on  Burlington  Bay — some- 
where in  the  vicinity  of  Hamilton,  Ont. — it's  quite  too  much 
for  me ;  I  leave  it  right  there. 

The  spread  of  misinformation  about  Niagara  began,  as 
we  have  seen,  as  soon  as  men  began  to  write  of  the  region. 
The  first  man  usually  means  the  first  lie.  In  contemplation 
of  such  a  cataract,  exaggeration  was  a  natural  tribute  of 
the  mind.  La  Hontan's  "seven  or  eight  hundred  feet"  was 
of  a  sort  with  the  modern  reporter's  estimate  of  a  crowd, 
or  the  first  reports  of  loss  of  life  in  a  casualty.  People  see 
the  real  thing,  but  it  gets  exalted  in  their  imagination  before 
they  describe  it.  We  are  so  accustomed  to  the  contemporary 
writing  of  history  that  isn't  so— in  the  Press — that  we  lose 
our  powers  for  critically  estimating  the  history  of  long  ago. 
Perhaps,  in  cases  like  La  Hontan's,  the  overstatement — the 
mere  excess  of  fact,  as  it  were — is  what  the  critics  mean 
when  they  talk  of  "literary  perspective."  The  Falls  were  so 
far  from  Europe  they  had  to  be  elevated  to  make  the  proper 
effect  upon  the  reader.  The  Baron's  motive  was  wholly 
laudable. 

The  early  artists  who  illustrated  Father  Hennepin's 
books  were  impelled  by  the  same  motive.  America  was  so 
far  off,  the  features  of  its  topography  must  be  magnified 


296  HISTORY   THAT  ISN'T  SO. 

and  emphasized  to  be  appreciated  in  Europe.  So  they  put 
high  mountains  around  Lake  Erie,  and  up  and  down  the 
Niagara,  and  planted  thereon  strange  trees — the  sort  of 
tropical  verdure  that  a  man  in  a  Paris  garret  or  a  Dutch 
cellar  might  dream  of.  And  among  these  mountains  and 
under  these  dreamland  trees  they  tried  to  depict  the  strange 
American  animals:  the  bison,  a  very  queer  European  cow 
with  a  hump  and  curly  hair;  and  from  the  bough  above 
they  hung  a  long-tailed  rat — presumably  an  attempt  to 
depict  the  opossum.  Some  of  the  early  pictures  of  the 
beaver,  drawn  of  course  by  artists  who  had  never  seen  one, 
but  were  impressed  by  priests'  and  travelers'  accounts  of 
their  wonderful  sagacity,  are  uncannily  human. 

In  the  1704  edition  of  Hennepin's  "Nouvelle  De- 
couverte,"  there  is  a  picture  of  the  building  of  the  Griffon, 
that  famous  pioneer  vessel  of  the  Upper  Lakes.  It  was  con- 
structed, you  will  remember,  on  the  American  shore  of  the 
Niagara  near  the  present  village  of  La  Salle.  According  to 
the  old  French  or  Flemish  artist,  there  were  high  mountains 
with  precipitous  sides  over  on  the  western  bank,  which  is 
now  Canada.  Alas,  the  leveling  influences  of  time  in  demo- 
cratic communities — these  mountains  are  all  gone  now.  The 
Griffon  itself,  we  learn  from  this  precious  picture,  was  put 
together  under  the  shade  of  a  tree  which  looks  like  a  huge 
feather-duster,  or  a  sheaf  of  corn-leaves  tied  to  a  pole. 
The  early  artists  were  fond  of  this  tree ;  it  appears  in  many 
plates  illustrating  Seventeenth-century  travels  in  America. 
I  too  am  a  lover  of  trees,  and  in  years  past  have  roamed 
over  every  foot  of  ground  of  the  Niagara  shores;  but  I 
found  no  trace  of  the  Hennepin  feather-duster  tree.  Still, 
the  species  is  not  extinct.  I  have  but  to  turn  to  a  certain 
shelf  of  old  books,  where  La  Salle  and  Hennepin  and  Tonty 
and  other  worthies  hold  converse  with  each  other,  and  lo! 


HISTORY   THAT  ISN'T  SO.  297 

as  I  turn  the  leaves,  the  feather-duster  tree  is  found  as 
abundant  and  flourishing  as  ever. 

And  speaking  of  the  Griffon.  Our  local  newspapers  are 
little  enough  addicted  to  history ;  yet  the  story  of  La  Salle's 
small  craft  is  a  favorite,  and  allusions  to  it  are  not  infre- 
quent, though  rarely — I  may  as  well  say,  never — with 
accuracy.  Editors  and  contributors  seem  to  have  agreed 
that  the  Griffon  was  the  first  white  man's  vessel  on  the 
Great  Lakes.  Over  and  over  again  I  find  it  so  stated ;  and 
not  merely  in  newspapers,  but  in  school-books.  What  then 
of  the  brigantine  in  which  La  Salle's  party  sailed  across 
Lake  Ontario  in  December,  1678,  bringing  on  her  material 
for  the  construction  of  the  Griffon?  She  was  afterwards 
wrecked  on  the  Lake  Ontario  shore.  She  was  appropriately 
named  the  Frontenac,  and,  obviously,  to  her  belongs  the 
distinction  of  priority. 

There  has  long  been  a  variety  of  opinion  and  disagree- 
ment as  to  the  place  where  the  Griffon  was  built.  It  was 
Mr.  O.  H.  Marshall  who  found  and  set  in  order  the  evidence 
which  fixes  the  spot  near  the  present  site  of  La  Salle.  I 
think  this  is  proved,  although  there  are  statements  in  some 
of  the  old  chronicles  which  I  cannot  reconcile  with  this 
view.  That  the  matter  has  occasioned  the  writing  of  con- 
siderable "history  that  isn't  so,"  is  readily  seen  by  examining 
any  shelf  of  books  on  that  period  of  American  history. 
Jared  Sparks,  in  the  early  editions  of  his  "Life  of  La 
Salle,"  says  the  boat  was  built  "at  Chippewa  creek,  on  the 
Canadian  side  of  the  river."  Parkman,  prehaps  accepting 
Sparks  as  trustworthy,  said  the  same  thing  in  his  "Life  of 
Pontiac."  These  statements  are  changed,  in  recent  editions. 
John  S.  C.  Abbott,  who  is  not  to  be  classed  with  Sparks  or 
Parkman,  but  whose  unreliable  pages  have  had  wide  read- 
ing, says,  in  his  "Adventures  of  La  Salle  and  his  Com- 


298  HISTORY   THAT  ISN'T  SO. 

panions,"  that  the  ship-yard  "was  about  six  miles  above 
Niagara  Falls,  on  the  western  side  of  the  river,  at  the  outlet 
of  a  little  stream  called  Chippewa  creek."  Schoolcraft,  in 
his  "Tour  to  the  Lakes,"  said  the  Griffon  was  built  "near 
Buffalo."  Governor  Lewis  Cass,  in  an  address  before  the 
Historical  Society  of  Michigan,  claimed  that  "the  Griffon 
was  launched  at  Erie";  and  Bryant  &  Gay's  "History  of 
the  United  States"  has  the  amazing  statement  that  the 
Griffon  was  built  at  Fort  Frontenac,  which  it  locates  on 
Lake  Erie! 

A  statement  which  is  made  from  the  best  available  evi- 
dence, even  if  afterwards  shown  to  be  wrong,  is  entitled  to 
respect.  But  it  is  a  reprehensible  thing  for  author  or  pub- 
lisher to  persist  in  error,  after  the  truth  has  been  established. 

Some  of  the  statements  relative  to  the  much  written-of 
episode  of  La  Salle  on  the  Niagara  are — to  me — inexplic- 
able. What  for  instance  can  be  made  of  this,  which  occurs 
in  the  article  "Fort  Niagara,"  contained  in  that  nearest 
approach  of  the  human  mind  to  omniscience,  the  latest 
edition  of  the  Encyclopaedia  Brittanica: 

"A  fort  built  (1675)  by  Gabriel  Edouard,  chevalier  de 
Nouvel  (1636-1694),  was  soon  destroyed,  as  were  Fort 
Conti  and  the  trading-post  built  by  La  Salle  in  1679." 

I  leave  that  for  students  of  our  regional  history  who  like 
"nuts  to  crack,"  along  with  another,  a  simple  inquiry :  How 
did  Point  Abino  get  its  name? 

La  Salle  is  often  but  erroneously  called  Chevalier;  not 
merely  by  amateurs  in  historical  study,  but  by  more  than  one 
writer  of  reputation.  Thus  the  story  of  La  Salle,  by  John 
S.  C.  Abbott,  in  the  "American  Pioneers  and  Patriots" 
series,  is  entitled  "The  Adventures  of  the  Chevalier  De  La 
Salle,"  etc.  It  would  seem  to  require  exceptional  careless- 


HISTORY   THAT  ISN'T  SO.  299 

ness  to  mistake  La  Salle's  family  name,  Cavelier,  for 
"Chevalier,"  indicating  the  rank  of  knighthood.  Cavelier 
was  ennobled,  but  never  knighted.  The  patent  of  nobility 
granted  him  by  Louis  XIV.,  May  13,  1675,  states  that  he, 
his  wife  and  their  lawful  issue  shall  be  "deemed  and  reputed 
noble,  bearing  the  rank  of  Esquire,  with  power  to  reach  all 
ranks  of  knighthood  and  gendarmerie."  But  La  Salle  never 
married  and  found  a  grave  in  a  Texas  swamp,  with  no 
higher  rank  of  nobility  than  "Sieur."  His  companion  Tonty 
was  knighted  before  he  appears  on  the  Niagara,  and  is 
entitled  to  be  called  "Chevalier." 

It  has  long  been  customary  to  write  of  Father  Hennepin 
as  the  discoverer  of  the  Niagara.  If  discovery  is  to  be 
ascribed  to  the  expedition  of  which  he  was  a  member,  ought 
not  the  leader  of  that  expedition  to  have  the  credit?  Yet 
we  are  not  warranted  in  saying  that  La  Salle  discovered  the 
Falls.  We  do  not  know  what  white  man  first  saw  them. 
It  is  a  good  guess,  with  some  plausibility,  that  Etienne  Brule 
was  that  man;  but  there  is  nothing  to  prove  it.  Many 
years  before  Hennepin  came  this  way,  Jesuit  missionaries 
had  written  of  it.  Father  Jerome  Lalement  had  referred  to 
the  Falls,  by  name,  thirty-seven  years  before  Hennepin  saw 
them;  and  thirty-one  years  before,  another  missionary, 
Father  Paul  Ragueneau,  had  told  of  "a  waterfall  of  fright- 
ful height"  between  Erie  and  Ontario.  Hennepin  may  very 
likely  have  read  their  descriptions.  We  may  be  sure  that 
much  information  about  the  great  cataract  was  current 
before  the  party  including  Hennepin  arrived  in  December 
of  the  year  1678. 

By  the  way,  is  Hennepin  responsible  for  our  present 
perverse  spelling  of  "Niagara"?  Before  him  it  was 
"Ongiara"  and  "Onguiaahra,"  the  two  (Huron  or  Neuter) 
forms  pronouncing  much  the  same.  Hennepin  was  not  the 


300  HISTORY   THAT  ISN'T  SO. 

student  of  the  native  dialects  that  his  predecessors,  the 
Jesuits,  were.  Which  was  the  more  likely  to  be  correct? 

And  now,  to  this  wrong  name,  "Niagara,"  we  have  long 
given  a  wrong  pronunciation.  It  was  formerly  spoken 
"Ni-[or  Nee]-ah-ga-ra."  To  speak  it  with  a  syllable  ending 
in  hard  "g" — "Ni-ay-a-ra" — is  to  do  violence  to  the  genius 
of  the  Seneca  language.  "Ni-ag-a-ra"  is  a  harsh  and  ugly 
word.  "Nee-ah-ga-ra"  is  soft  and  pleasant.  I  have  else- 
where ("Niagara  and  the  Poets")  called  attention  to  a  line 
in  Goldsmith's  "Traveler"  which  shows  that  in  his  day  the 
word  was  correctly  spoken: 

"And  Nia-^a-ra  stuns  with  thundering  sound." 

The  scansion  and  rhythm  would  be  lost  with  our  present 
perverted  pronunciation. 

So  we  are  not  only  wrong  in  our  name  of  the  falls,  but 
wrong  in  our  pronunciation  of  that  wrong  name! 

There  exists  a  curious  narrative  of  the  discovery  of 
Niagara  Falls.  Many  years  ago  it  was  widely  printed,  in 
more  than  one  language.  Not  long  ago  I  found  it  in  French, 
in  the  first  volume  of  the  Magazin  de  Bas-Canada,  Journal 
Litteraire  et  Scientifique,  etc.,  published  in  Montreal  in 
1832.  After  I  had  taken  the  trouble  to  copy  and  translate 
it,  I  found  that  it  was  essentially  the  same  story  that  had 
appeared  in  the  Museum  of  Foreign  Literature  and  Science. 
Philadelphia,  October,  1831,  which  had  taken  it  from 
Fraser's  Magazine.  No  doubt  it  may  turn  up  in  a  score  of 
old-time  magazines  and  reviews,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
newspapers.  It  is  a  veracious,  rather  straightforward  nar- 
rative, too  long  to  be  given  here  in  full,  but  of  which  the 
following  summary  may  suffice. 

Among  the  first  missionaries  who  were  sent  from 
England  to  convert  the  American  aborigines  to  Christianity, 


HISTORY   THAT  ISN'T  SO.  301 

were  Joseph  Price  and  Henry  Wilmington.  It  is  related 
with  some  detail,  but  a  lack  of  dates,  that  these  young  Eng- 
lishmen, after  a  passage  of  thirteen  weeks  from  Plymouth, 
landed  at  Boston,  "then  a  very  small  but  thriving  village," 
fired  with  a  desire  to  carry  the  gospel  to  the  Indians.  At 
the  end  of  May  they  set  out,  provided  with  compasses  and 
fowling-pieces.  "It  was  their  intention  to  visit  a  distant 
tract  of  country,  of  which  nothing  was  known  except  vague 
reports  of  sheets  of  water  so  immense  that,  but  for  the  cir- 
cumstance of  their  being  fresh,  they  might  have  been  led 
to  suppose  they  were  on  an  island."  After  some  days,  hav- 
ing passed  "the  ultimate  farm,"  they  plunged  into  the  forest 
"which  had  most  likely  never  been  trodden  by  the  feet  of 
civilized  man."  After  various  woodland  incidents  they 
reached  "a  large  and  rapid  river."  "In  about  a  week  after, 
they  reached  a  chain  of  mountains,"  beyond  which  were 
encountered  friendly  Indians  who  were  surprised  "at  be- 
holding people  so  different  in  colour  to  themselves,  and 
armed  with  what  appeared  to  them  only  polished  sticks." 
A  flock  of  wild  geese  passing  high  overhead,  the  Indians 
futilely  shot  arrows  at  them,  whereupon  Price  and  Wil- 
mington promptly  brought  down  two  with  their  guns — no 
slight  exploit  even  for  expert  woodsmen  and  hunters,  which 
these  missionaries  could  hardly  claim  to  be.  They  sojourned 
with  the  Indians  at  their  village  "on  the  Oneida."  This  is 
the  first  name  which  helps  to  localize  the  story,  but  as  we 
go  on  it  appears  that  "the  Oneida"  is  the  designation  not 
of  a  lake  but  of  a  river.  Price  preached  a  sermon,  until  the 
Indians  refused  to  listen  any  more.  Then  he  proposed  to 
Wilmington  that  they  verify  a  rumor,  heard  in  Boston,  of 
great  inland  waters.  They  set  out,  the  chief  Maiook — or 
Mayouk,  a  work  suggesting  "Mohawk" — guiding  them  to 
a  river  which  he  said  "would  carry  them  to  the  great  basin." 


302  HISTORY   THAT  ISN'T  SO. 

But  few  of  his  people  had  been  there,  but  an  old  man  in 
his  youth  had  gone  many  days  in  his  canoe,  coming  to  an 
enormous  river  which  fell  from  a  fresh-water  lake.  While 
hunting  he  had  heard  a  great  noise  of  water,  but  fear  had 
turned  him  back. 

The  missionaries  were  given  a  guide — one  account  says 
Maiook  went  with  them.  They  have  adventures  in  a  burn- 
ing wood ;  reach  Lake  Ontario  and  for  days  coast  along  its 
shore,  finally  coming  to  "a  great  and  rapid  river,"  which 
they  ascended  until  rapids  were  encountered,  when  they 
continued  along  the  bank.  Price  told  a  young  man  to 
climb  a  tall  tree,  to  spy  out  the  country.  "Encouraged  by 
his  report  they  continued  to  follow  the  precipitous  banks  of 
the  river.  The  noise,  which  had  gradually  increased,  be- 
came each  instant  more  terrible,  and  the  swiftness  of  the 
current  showed  that  they  were  near  a  furious  rapid."  Pres- 
ently "they  found  themselves  on  the  edge  of  a  bare  rock 
which  hung  over  a  vast  abyss  into  which  two  currents  of 
one  great  river  fell  with  a  noise  that  drowned  their  excla- 
mations of  surprise,  and  surpassed  that  of  the  ocean  in  a 
tempest."  The  "missionaries"  narrowly  escape  being 
plunged  into  the  abyss  by  a  fall  of  rock.  A  description — 
that  is,  a  sort  of  a  description — of  the  Falls  follows.  Among 
other  things,  they  behold  "a  large  deer  struggling  against 
the  overpowering  suction  of  the  falls  .  .  .  but  the  roar 
of  the  cataracts  drowned  its  voice  and  it  was  soon  precipi- 
tated into  the  boiling  abyss." 

"The  French,"  concludes  the  conscientious  chronicler, 
"from  the  Province  of  Quebec,  may  have  reached  as  far 
before,  but  Price  and  his  companion  believed  they  were  the 
first  who  had  penetrated  to  that  spot;  and  when  they 
returned  back  to  their  settlements,  their  description  of  the 
unparalleled  magnificence  of  the  cataracts,  to  which  Maiook 


HISTORY   THAT  ISN'T  SO.  303 

gave  the  name  of  Niagara,  or  the  thundering  waters,  was 
deemed  incredible." 

And  well  it  may  have  been,  for  the  whole  yarn  is  incred- 
ible. So  far  as  I  have  traced  it,  it  was  originally  contributed 
to  Fraser's  Magazine  by  the  clever  Canadian  writer,  John 
Gait.  It  bears  so  few  earmarks  of  fiction  that  no  doubt 
many  excellent  people,  three  quarters  of  a  century  ago, 
regarded  it  as  history.  But  it  "isn't  so." 

Prolific  sources  of  minor  error  and  inaccuracy  on  the 
part  of  many  who  have  written  of  our  regional  history,  are 
some  of  the  papers  in  the  collections  known  as  "The  Docu- 
mentary History  of  the  State  of  New  York"  and  the  "Docu- 
ments relative  to  the  Colonial  History  of  the  State  of  New 
York."  These  well-known  sources  of  information  are 
precious — simply  invaluable;  but  they  are  not  always  com- 
plete, or  accurate  transcriptions  of  the  original  manuscripts ; 
and  they  need  to  be  used,  as  any  source  material  does, 
with  discernment.  Especially  are  the  Sir  William  Johnson 
papers  in  them  full  of  slips  and  misstatements,  which  can 
usually  be  detected  by  the  painstaking  student.  Sir  Wil- 
liam's innocence  of  any  knowledge  of  French,  and  the 
ingeniousness  of  his  spelling,  are  responsible  for  many  oft- 
repeated  errors.  One  instance  will  illustrate  this. 

Not  long  ago  I  had  occasion  to  review  the  early  history 
of  the  Chautauqua  and  French  Creek  portages,  a  part  of 
the  old  military  routes  from  Lake  Erie  into  the  Ohio  valley. 
Of  the  well-known  expedition  of  1753,  commanded  by 
Marin,  I  found  it  stated,  in  more  than  one  history,  that  he 
had  a  sub-officer,  I  am  not  sure  of  what  rank,  called 
"Babeer"  or  "Barbeer."  The  story,  as  usually  told,  is  to 
the  effect  that  "Babeer"  and  his  detachment  of  troops, 
coming  on  from  Montreal  in  advance  of  the  main  expedi- 
tion, landed  at  what  is  now  Barcelona  Harbor,  and  began 


304  HISTORY   THAT  ISN'T  SO. 

there  the  construction  of  a  fort,  and  that  the  commander-in- 
chief  arriving  a  little  later  put  a  stop  to  the  work,  moved 
the  expedition  further  westward,  and  opened  up  the  famous 
portage  by  way  of  Presque  Isle.  There  is  no  great  difficulty 
in  getting  access  to  the  official  records  of  this  expedition; 
the  names  of  the  officers  are  easily  ascertained.  They  were, 
for  the  most  part,  men  conspicuous  in  the  French  service  in 
America;  but  no  where  in  all  these  sources  of  trustworthy 
information  can  be  found  the  name  of  this  alleged  fore- 
runner of  the  expedition,  called  "Babeer."  The  name  itself 
is  improbable  as  a  French  word,  and  should  have  long 
ago  awakened  the  suspicion  of  conscientious  writers  who 
have  told  of  the  exploits  of  Babeer  in  the  Chautauqua 
wilderness.  If,  however,  one  will  take  the  trouble  to  con- 
sult the  "Documentary  History  of  the  State  of  New  York," 
he  will  find  there  a  certain  deposition  made  by  one  Stephen 
Coffen  before  Col.  Johnson  (afterwards  Sir  William),  at 
his  home  on  the  Mohawk,  in  1754.  Coffen  was  an  ignorant 
soldier,  a  New  Englander,  who  had  been  a  prisoner  among 
the  French  for  some  years.  Being  at  Montreal  in  the  fall 
of  1752,  he  was  allowed  to  serve  as  a  soldier  under  Marin. 
Deserting  from  the  French  service  soon  after  the  passage 
of  Marin's  troops  down  the  Ohio,  he  reached  the  Mohawk 
and  told  his  story  to  Johnson.  Unable  to  write,  he  signed 
his  statement  with  a  cross.  The  record,  therefore,  that 
bears  his  name  was  set  down  either  by  Johnson  or  a  sec- 
retary. 

It  takes  but  the  slightest  familiarity  with  the  names  of 
the  French  officers  of  the  period  to  discover  how  untrust- 
worthy were  Coffen's  memory  and  Johnson's  spelling.  It 
is  a  grotesque  blending  of  misinformation,  badly  spelled. 
One  pauses  a  moment  when  he  reads  of  Governor-General 
"Le  Cain"  to  remember  that  the  officer's  name  is  Du  Quesne. 


HISTORY   THAT  ISN'T  SO.  305 

"Presque  Isle"  becomes  "Briske  Isle."  Every  name  men- 
tioned by  Coffen  is  distorted.  And  here  we  have  the  source 
of  this  mythical  "Babeer,"  who  has  been  so  taken  for 
granted  by  the  writers  of  Chautauqua  county  histories. 
Whoever  "Babeer"  was  we  may  be  sure  that  was  not  his 
name,  nor  was  there  any  officer  in  the  retinue  of  Marin 
whose  name  suggests  this  form. 

The  discovery  of  Chautauqua  Lake,  like  the  discovery 
of  Niagara  Falls,  is  still  a  matter  of  speculation.  Some 
writers  try  to  show  that  La  Salle  discovered  the  lake,  I 
know  not  on  what  evidence.  Others  have  claimed  the 
honor  for  Celoron,  whose  name  is  preserved  in  the  nomen- 
clature of  the  region.  But  this  is  plainly  "history  that  isn't 
so,"  for  the  old  records  which  tell  us  of  his  expedition  also 
state  that  when  near  the  outlet  of  the  lake  his  forces  were 
shown  a  path  to  the  high  land,  a  cut-off,  I  suppose,  to  avoid 
the  long  marsh,  by  a  Frenchman  who  had  been  that  way 
before. 

This  was  Dagneaux  de  la  Saussaye,  and  a  little  search 
among  the  documents  of  the  time  discovers  that  he  had 
passed  through  the  region  in  the  summer  of  1743  on  a  mis- 
sion to  the  Chanouanons — i.  e.,  the  Shawanees.  I  do  not 
find  in  any  of  the  local  histories  that  de  Saussaye  receives 
so  much  as  a  mention,  yet  he  certainly  preceded  Celoron  by 
six  years,  and  is  the  first  white  man  of  whom  I  find  official 
record  who  can  be  said  to  have  explored  what  is  now  Chau- 
tauqua county. 

A  book  could  readily  be  written  on  the  blunders  in  other 
books,  relating  to  our  region.  It  would  probably  add  to 
them,  and  would  be  of  little  service,  as  ungracious  perform- 
ances usually  are.  The  ordinary  kind  of  misstatement  is 
not  "very  deadly"  to  a  student  who  knows  the  subject  at 
all.  Many  current  errors  in  our  published  annals  are  trivial, 


306  HISTORY   THAT  ISN'T  SO. 

many  are  due  to  prejudice  and  the  fact  that  a  definite  event 
may  be  construed  variously  by  different  writers — the  battle 
of  Lundy's  Lane,  for  instance,  which  is  still  being  fought — 
and  many  are  merely  amusing.  One  that  I  call  amusing  is 
the  grave  statement  in  William  Kirby's  "Annals  of  Niagara" 
that  Lewiston  was  named  for  Louis — or,  as  I  believe  he 
spells  it,  Lewis  XIV!  Shade  of  Governor  Morgan  Lewis, 
what  is  fame!  Mr.  Kirby  was  an  excellent  gentleman,  for 
many  years  Collector  of  Customs  at  Niagara,  Ont.  He 
knew  the  history  of  his  corner  of  the  world  better  than  any 
one  else,  and  he  rendered  a  real  service  to  history  when  he 
wrote  the  "Annals  of  Niagara" ;  if  the  work  could  be  over- 
hauled, and  its  many  errors  eliminated,  its  value  would  be 
increased. 

Another  work  that  the  student  of  our  history  should 
know  is  exceedingly  deceptive  in  its  title.  That  is  Ketchum's 
"Authentic  and  Comprehensive  History  of  Buffalo,"  pub- 
lished in  two  volumes  in  1864.  Many  a  reader  in  quest  of 
Buffalo  data  has  discovered  that  it  really  is  not  a  history  of 
Buffalo  at  all,  except  in  the  earliest  years,  the  narrative 
ending  with  the  burning  of  the  village  in  1813.  It  is  an 
admirable  compilation  of  data  relating  to  the  aborigines  of 
Western  New  York,  to  events  preceding  settlement  and  the 
earliest  years  of  the  town.  This  is  a  case  of  a  good  book 
having  a  title  which  "isn't  so."  Probably  the  author's  plan 
never  contemplated  a  review  of  events  for  the  half  century 
and  more  which  he  did  not  write  about;  but  if  it  did  he 
paused  on  the  threshold,  like  Henry  Thomas  Buckle,  who 
exhausted  himself  in  writing  the  two-volume  introduction 
to  his  "History  of  Civilization,"  and  never  wrote  more. 

The  enquiring  student,  curious  about  the  history  of  our 
region,  may  run  across  a  book  published  in  Albany  in 
1841,  entitled  "A  History  of  the  early  Adventures  of  Wash- 


HISTORY   THAT  ISN'T  SO.  307 

ington  among  the  Indians  of  the  West,"  etc.  The  author 
was  Josiah  Priest.  If  our  student  knows  about  Priest,  he 
will  be  on  his  guard;  if  he  does  not,  he  will  presently  be 
wandering  in  a  veritable  maze  of  "history."  One  of  the 
characters  of  this  extraordinary  narrative,  which  purports 
to  be  "gathered  from  the  Records  of  that  Era,"  is  a  mys- 
terious Mingo  prophet,  Tonnaleuka,  otherwise  the  Laird  of 
Mackintosh,  a  Scotch  outlaw,  who  tells  Washington  that 
through  the  interests  of  the  Stuarts  he  procured  a  com- 
mission in  the  French  army: 

"In  a  few  years  I  was  sent  as  lieutenant-colonel  of  a 
regiment  to  Canada.  My  superior  disliking  the  climate, 
soon  returned  to  Europe,  and  I  was  made  Colonel  in  his 
place.  In  this  capacity  I  was  stationed  for  a  number  of 
years  at  a  Fort  near  the  Falls  of  Niagara.  Here  I  had  an 
opportunity  of  becoming  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the 
manners  and  customs  of  the  Indians,  as  well  as  with  many 
of  their  languages;  and  also  of  greatly  improving  my 
fortune  by  purchasing  their  furs  and  transmitting  them  to 
Quebec." 

Washington  is  represented  as  falling  in  love  with  this 
man's  daughter.  The  book  is  a  curio,  but  the  reader  who 
chances  upon  it  must  not  mistake  it  for  history. 

Many  of  the  books  relating  in  whole  or  part  to  the 
Niagara  region,  which  today  seem  merely  amusing  and 
absurd,  when  first  published  were  no  doubt  taken  seriously 
enough  by  their  readers,  if  not  by  their  authors.  Such  for 
instance  is  the  anonymous  "Travels  in  North  America," 
published  in  Dublin  in  1824.  It  is  apparently  an  abridgment 
of  another  work,  if  indeed  it  is  not  a  manufactured  narra- 
tive, based  on  any  available  works,  for  the  edification  of 
Young  Ireland.  It  relates,  soberly  enough,  the  adventures 
of  one  George  Philips,  who  visited  Niagara  apparently  in 


308  HISTORY   THAT  ISN'T  SO. 

1816,  after  having  traveled  with  the  Lewis  and  Clarke 
exploring  expedition  to  the  Pacific,  by  way  of  the  Missouri 
and  Columbia  rivers.  The  author  states,  as  though  it  were 
the  simplest  thing  in  the  world,  that  Philips  "engaged  a 
canoe  and  men,  and  by  keeping  dexterously  in  the  middle 
of  the  stream  from  Chippeway,  reached  an  island  called 
Goat  Island."  Having  viewed  the  Falls — of  which  an  amus- 
ingly bad  cut  is  given — he  and  his  companion  "returned  to 
Chippeway,  by  keeping  their  canoe  in  the  middle  of  the 
stream"!  Lake  Erie  is  described  as  very  deep,  while  in 
places  "long  ranges  of  steep  mountains  rise  from  the  very 
edge  of  the  water."  All  in  all,  it's  quite  a  book. 

There  are  many  statements  in  the  local  guide-books, 
appropriated  by  one  compiler  after  another,  republished 
year  after  year,  purporting  to  be  "history,"  yet  utterly 
without  authority  or  reason.  I  am  not  speaking  of  mere 
uncertainties  or  inaccuracies  of  date ;  the  person  who  makes 
no  mistakes  has  not  yet  been  born,  and  there  is  very  much 
yet  to  be  learned  by  all.  I  criticize  only  the  deliberate 
inventions  which  are  passed  off  as  truth.  Of  this  class  is 
the  much-printed  statement  that  Father  Hennepin  discov- 
ered Niagara  Falls  from  the  point  known  as  "Hennepin's 
View."  Of  course  he  may  have  stood  there,  or  he  may 
not.  He  passed  repeatedly  up  and  down  the  river  bank, 
but  there  is  no  authority  for  associating  him,  particularly, 
with  any  one  spot. 

Another  fiction,  and  a  silly  one,  is  that  which  makes 
La  Salle  a  visitor  at  the  cave  in  the  Devil's  Hole.  The 
whole  yarn  is  preposterous,  yet  it  is  retold,  at  intervals,  by 
writers  who  know  better. 

Still  another  incident  that  is  much  distorted  and  em- 
bellished, even  in  pretentious  works,  is  the  affair  of  the 
Caroline.  By  some  accounts,  she  was  sent  blazing  over  the 


HISTORY   THAT  ISN'T  SO.  309 

Falls,  carrying  many  men  down  to  death.  A  painstaking 
study  of  all  available  evidence  in  the  case  affords  proof  of 
the  death  of  but  one  man,  and  he  was  shot  on  the  dock  at 
Schlosser. 

There  are  numerous  instances  of  plagiarism  in  the 
literature  of  our  region,  and  of  the  appropriation  by  one 
writer  of  the  narrative — and  experiences — of  another.  I 
will  not  go  here  into  the  intricacies  of  the  literary  strife 
that  was  waged,  by  all  who  could  share  in  it,  over  the 
exploits  of  La  Salle  and  his  several  expeditions.  Hennepin, 
Tonty,  Joutel,  Cavelier,  shared  in  the  contention,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  train  of  commentators  to  this  day.  As  early 
as  1750  Peter  Kalm  felt  called  upon  to  correct  all  Niagara 
visitors  who  had  preceded  him.  He  found  people  in  Canada 
calling  Father  Hennepin  "un  grand  menteur,"  and  added 
his  own  repudiation  of  that  worthy.  Kalm  wanted  it 
understood  that  he  could  be  relied  on :  "I  like  to  see  things 
just  as  they  are,  and  so  to  relate  them."  He  surely  was  no 
plagiarist ;  but  many  later  writers  on  the  Niagara  have  been 
victims  of  this  most  widespread  literary  sin.  No  one  cares, 
particularly,  about  such  thievery,  unless  it  constitutes  a 
false  record — becomes  "history  that  isn't  so."  An  instance 
of  this  sort,  to  which,  I  think,  attention  has  not  been  called, 
is  that  of  Peter  Williamson.  There  are  many  editions  of 
this  wandering  Scotchman's  book.  One  before  me,  printed 
in  Edinburgh  in  1768,  is  entitled:  "The  Travels  of  Peter 
Williamson  among  the  different  Nations  and  Tribes  of 
Savage  Indians  in  America" — and  much  more,  a  very  prolix 
inscription.  The  work  purports  to  contain  "a  general 
description  of  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  according  to  my  own 
observations,  during  the  course  of  my  travels  through 
America,  before  the  late  war,"  that  is,  the  Old  French  War. 
Any  narrative  of  observations  hereabouts  at  so  early  a 


310  HISTORY   THAT  ISN'T  SO. 

period  would  have  value  and  interest;  but  when  I  read 
Williamson,  I  find  that  his  description  is  stolen — and  rather 
clumsily  stolen — from  Kalm's  account,  written  at  Albany  in 
1750.  Incidents  narrated  shortly  after  his  account  of 
Niagara  are  dated  May,  1746,  and  August,  1748,  but  there 
is  nothing  in  the  book  to  fix  more  definitely  his  alleged 
travels  in  this  region.  The  preface  states  that  the  author 
"was  born  in  Aberdeenshire  in  the  north  of  Scotland,  and 
was  carried  off  in  his  infancy  from  that  city,  by  his  own 
countrymen,  and  sold  as  a  slave  in  America ;  after  continu- 
ing in  this  state  of  slavery  for  many  years  he  was  at  last 
unfortunately  taken  captive  by  the  savage  Indians,  in  whose 
hands  he  remained  for  some  years,  and  suffered  during  their 
hunting  expeditions  the  most  severe  hardships."  The  work 
contains  no  narrative  of  these  experiences;  and  I  am  con- 
strained, in  lack  of  evidence  to  the  contrary,  to  include 
much  of  Williamson's  reputed  career,  especially  his  alleged 
Niagara  visit,  in  the  category  of  "history  that  isn't  so." 

Most  of  the  early  observers  at  the  Falls  saw  things  that 
were  not  there.  Some  of  these  I  have  touched  on  in  preced- 
ing pages.  In  looking  through  Volney's  "Views,"  I  note  his 
account  of  the  carcasses  of  wild  boars,  found  at  the  foot  of 
the  falls.  His  observation  was  not  disturbed  by  the  fact 
that  the  wild  boar  has  never  inhabited  America. 

De  Witt  Clinton,  in  his  delightful  old  journal,  "Letters 
on  the  Natural  History  and  Internal  Resources  of  the  State 
of  New  York,"  a  volume  much  more  attractive  than  its 
title  would  indicate,  quotes  from  the  speech  of  "a  cidevant 
governor  to  a  great  military  commander,  on  the  presentation 
of  a  sword.  ...  In  speaking  of  a  nocturnal  battle 
near  the  cataract  of  Niagara,  he  says  that  it  produced  a 
midnight  rainbow,  whose  refulgence  outshone  the  iris  of 
the  day." 


HISTORY   THAT  ISN'T  SO.  311 

This  is  history,  though  perhaps  not  so  much  natural 
history  as  unnatural.  It  belongs  in  the  same  class  as  the 
eulogium  of  a  country  schoolmaster  on  General  Wolfe: 

Great  General  Wolfe,  without  any  fears, 
Led  on  his  brave  grenadiers, 
And  what  is  most  miraculous  and  particular, 
He  climbed  up  rocks  that  were  perpendicular. 

Error  is  everywhere.  I  pick  up  a  picture  post-card  from 
a  hotel  stand.  It  is  labeled :  "Old  stone  house  and  barracks 
where  Morgan  was  imprisoned,  Niagara,"  and  it  isn't  that 
at  all,  but  a  very  different  building  at  Fort  Niagara.  I  take 
a  ride  on  a  sight-seeing  wagon  in  Buffalo,  and  as  we  pass  a 
certain  gray-stone  residence  the  conductor-orator-guide 
declaims  loudly  that  this  house  was  "General  Scott's  head- 
quarters in  the  War  of  1812" — and  I  know  of  a  certainty 
that  the  house  was  built  in  1836.  As  we  drive  around  the 
Park  meadow  he  calls  the  attention  of  the  tourists  to  the 
large  boulder  which,  he  explains,  marks  a  battlefield  of  the 
War  of  1812!  Thus  is  history  made — popular. 

If  I  retreat  to  the  peaceful  seclusion  of  my  office  in  the 
Historical  Building,  I  have  numerous  callers  who  ask  to  be 
shown  the  place  where  President  McKinley  stood  in  that 
edifice  when  he  was  shot!  How  this  last  painful  and 
needless  error  gains  currency  I  cannot  guess,  but  the  num- 
ber of  strangers  who  have  been  informed  to  that  effect — so 
they  declare — is  amazing. 


NARRATIVES   OF 

EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY 

VISITORS  TO  NIAGARA 


18TH  CENTURY  VISITORS 


TN  preceding  pages  have  been  given  the  earliest  printed 
•*•  reports  concerning  Niagara  Falls.  There  are  probably 
no  other  Seventeenth-century  visitors  who  printed  accounts 
of  what  they  saw  here,  except  Hennepin  and  La  Hontan. 
The  latter's  account  of  Niagara  was  not  printed  until  1703. 
Father  Hennepin's  first  book,  the  "Louisiane"  says  much 
less  of  the  Falls  than  his  later  and  less  trustworthy  works. 
As  matter  of  record  I  quote  from  the  "Louisiane,"  first 
published  in  1683 : 

"On  the  6th  [December,  1678],  St.  Nicholas  day,  we 
entered  the  beautiful  river  Niagara,  which  no  bark  had  ever 
yet  entered.  .  .  .  Four  leagues  from  Lake  Frontenac  there 
is  an  incredible  Cataract  or  Waterfall,  which  has  no  equal. 
The  Niagara  river  near  this  place  is  only  the  eighth  of  a 
league  wide,  but  it  is  very  deep  in  places,  and  so  rapid  above 
the  great  fall,  that  it  hurries  down  all  the  animals  which 
try  to  cross  it,  without  a  single  one  being  able  to  withstand 
its  current.  They  plunge  down  a  height  of  more  than  five 
hundred  feet,  and  its  fall  is  composed  of  two  sheets  of 
water  and  a  cascade,  with  an  island  sloping  down.  In  the 
middle  these  waters  foam  and  boil  in  a  fearful  manner. 
They  thunder  continually,  and  when  the  wind  blows  in  a 
southerly  direction,  the  noise  which  they  make  is  heard  for 
from  more  than  fifteen  leagues.  Four  leagues  from  this 
cataract  or  fall,  the  Niagara  river  rushes  with  extraordinary 
rapidity  especially  for  two  leagues  into  Lake  Frontenac.  It 
is  during  these  two  leagues  that  goods  are  carried.  There 
is  a  very  fine  road,  very  little  wood,  and  almost  all  prairies 
mingled  with  some  oaks  and  firs,  on  both  banks  of  the 


316  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

river,  which  are  of  a  height  that  inspire  fear  when  you 
look  down. 

That  is  Father  Hennepin's  first  description  of  Niagara 
Falls.  In  his  subsequent  work  he  increased  the  height  to 
600  feet,  and  elaborated  his  account  in  various  ways.  This 
later  description  is  the  one  most  often  quoted,  and  need  not 
be  included  here. 

The  Baron  La  Hontan,  who  saw  the  Falls  in  August, 
1687,  published  in  1703  an  account  which  I  have  given  in 
a  preceding  paper  (p.  291). 

During  the  Eighteenth  century,  travelers  more  and  more 
found  their  way  to  the  Niagara,  and  more  and  more  descrip- 
tions appeared  in  print.  Some  of  these  are  among  the  most 
interesting  records  we  have,  of  early  days  on  the  Niagara. 
A  few  of  them  are  perhaps  familiar  through  much  reprint- 
ing, but  others  are  unknown  except  to  students  who  may 
have  made  particular  research  in  this  subject.  As  matter 
of  record,  therefore,  and  for  the  convenience  of  all,  there 
are  brought  together  in  pages  following  the  principal  des- 
criptions of  the  Falls  which  were  written,  down  to  the  close 
of  the  Eighteenth  century.  Correction  of  their  many  errors 
is  here  deemed,  for  the  most  part,  superfluous. 


FROM  "THE  FOUR  KINGS  OF  CANADA,"  1710. 

In  that  curious  little  book,  "The  Four  Kings  of  Canada, 
being  a  succinct  account  of  the  Four  Indian  Princes  lately 
arriv'd  from  North  America,"  etc.,  printed  in  London  in 
1710,  occurs  the  following: 

"The  River  of  St.  Lawrence  or  Canada,  receives  in  these 
Parts  an  Infinite  Quantity  of  fresh  Water  from  the  four 
great  Lakes,  the  Lake  Huron,  the  upper  Lake,  the  Lake  of 
the  Illinois,  and  the  Lake  Erie  or  of  the  Cat,  which  may 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  317 

properly  be  call'd  little  fresh  Water  Seas.  This  great 
Deluge  of  Water  tumbling  furiously  over  the  greatest  and 
most  dreadful  Heap  in  the  World,  an  infinite  Number  of 
Fish  take  great  Delight  to  spawn  here,  and  as  it  were 
suffocate  here,  because  they  cannot  get  over  this  huge 
Cataract :  So  that  the  Quantity  taken  here  is  incredible. 

"A  Gentleman  who  was  traveling  this  Part,  went  to  see 
this  Heap,  which  comes  from  a  River  in  the  North,  and 
falls  into  a  great  Basin  of  Lake  Outano  [Ontario],  big 
enough  to  hold  a  Hundred  Men  of  War,  being  there  he 
taught  the  Nations  to  catch  Fish  with  their  Hands,  by 
causing  Trees  to  be  cut  down  in  the  Spring,  and  to  be  roll'd 
to  the  Bank  of  the  River,  so  that  he  might  be  upon  them 
without  wetting  himself;  by  the  Assistance  of  which  he 
thrust  his  Arm  into  the  Water  up  to  the  Elbow,  where  he 
found  a  prodigious  Quantity  of  Fish  of  different  species, 
which  he  laid  hold  on  by  the  Gills,  gently  stroking  'em,  and 
when  he  had  taken  Fifty  or  Sixty  of  'em  at  a  Time,  he  use 
to  warm  and  refresh  himself ;  after  this  Manner,  in  a  short 
Time  he  would  catch  Fish  enough  to  feed  Fifty  or  Sixty 
Families." 

This  account,  which  puts  Niagara  well  to  the  fore  in 
the  matter  of  fish  stories,  would  seem  to  have  been  drawn 
from  a  source  quite  independent  of  Hennepin  and  La 
Hontan.  When  it  was  published  the  latter  was  still  living — 
his  death  occurring  in  1715 — and  Hennepin  may  have  been. 
In  1710  he  would  have  been  but  71  years  old,  but  there  is 
no  trace  of  him  later  than  1701. 

"The  Four  Kings  of  Canada"  is  the  first  publication  I 
know  of,  relating  to  Niagara,  after  La  Hontan.  Next  in 
chronological  order  is  the  account  given  by  "M.  Borassaw," 
at  Albany  in  1721,  to  the  Hon.  Paul  Dudley,  who  wrote  it 
down  and  published  it.  The  Frenchman,  whose  name  was 
probably  Borassan  or  Borassau — it  certainly  was  not  as 
Dudley  spelled  it — appears  to  have  been  a  boatman,  or 


318  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY    VISITORS. 

possibly  a  trader.  He  said  he  had  been  at  Niagara  seven 
times,  and  was  there  in  May,  1721,  when  de  Longueuil 
measured  the  Falls.  His  account,  as  written  by  Dudley, 
was  printed  in  many  places.  I  here  transcribe  it  from  the 
Philosophical  Transactions,  Royal  Society  of  London,  of 
1722: 

THE  "BORASSAW"  NARRATION  OF  1721. 

WRITTEN  BY  THE  HON.  PAUL  DUDLEY,  F.  R.  S. 

The  falls  of  Niagara  are  formed  by  a  vast  ledge  or 
precipice  of  solid  rock,  lying  across  the  whole  breadth  of 
the  river,  a  little  before  it  empties  itself  into,  or  forms  the 
lake  Ontario. 

M.  Borassaw  says,  that  in  spring  1722  [should  be  1721], 
the  governor  of  Canada  ordered  his  own  son,  with  three 
other  officers,  to  survey  the  Niagara,  and  take  the  exact 
height  of  the  cataract,  which  they  accordingly  did  with 
a  stone  of  half  a  hundred  weight,  and  a  large  cod-line,  and 
found  it  on  a  perpendicular  no  more  than  26  fathoms — 
''vingt  et  six  bras" 

This  differs  very  much  from  the  account  Father  Hen- 
nepin  has  given  to  that  cataract;  for  he  makes  it  100 
fathoms,  and  our  modern  maps  from  him,  as  I  suppose, 
mark  it  at  600  feet ;  but  I  believe  Hennepin  never  measured 
it,  and  there  is  no  guessing  at  such  things. 

When  I  objected  Hennepin's  account  of  those  falls  to  M. 
Borassaw,  he  replied,  that  accordingly  every  body  had 
depended  on  it  as  right,  until  the  late  survey.  On  further 
discourse  he  acknowledged,  that  below  the  cataract,  for  a 
great  way,  there  were  numbers  of  small  ledges  or  stairs 
across  the  river,  that  lowered  it  still  more  and  more,  till  you 
came  to  a  level ;  so  that  if  all  the  descents  be  put  together, 
he  does  not  know  but  the  difference  of  the  water  above  the 
falls  and  the  level  below,  may  come  up  to  Father  Hennepin ; 
but  the  strict  and  proper  cataract  on  a  perpendicular  is  no 
more  than  26  fathoms,  or  156  feet,  which  yet  is  a  prodigious 
thing,  and  what  the  world  I  suppose  cannot  parallel,  con- 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY    VISITORS.  319 

sidering  the  size  of  the  river,  being  near  a  quarter  of  an 
English  mile  broad,  and  very  deep  water. 

Several  other  things  M.  Borassaw  set  me  right  in,  as  to 
the  falls  of  Niagara.  Particularly  it  has  been  said,  that  the 
cataract  makes  such  a  prodigious  noise,  that  people  cannot 
hear  each  other  speak  at  some  miles  distances ;  whereas  he 
affirms,  that  you  may  converse  together  close  by  it.  I  have 
also  heard  it  positively  asserted,  that  the  shoot  of  the  river, 
when  it  comes  to  the  precipice,  was  with  such  force,  that 
men  and  horse  might  march  under  the  body  of  the  river 
without  being  whet;  this  also  he  utterly  denies,  and  says, 
the  water  falls  in  a  manner  right  down. 

What  he  observed  farther  to  me  was,  that  the  mist  or 
shower  which  the  falls  make,  is  so  extraordinary,  as  to  be 
seen  at  five  leagues  distance,  and  rise  as  high  as  the  common 
clouds.  In  this  brume  or  cloud,  when  the  sun  shines,  you 
have  always  a  glorious  rainbow.  That  the  river  itself, 
which  is  there  called  the  river  Niagara,  is  much  narrower 
at  the  falls  than  either  above  or  below;  and  that  from 
below  there  is  no  coming  nearer  the  falls  by  water  than 
about  six  English  miles,  the  torrent  is  so  rapid,  and  having 
such  terrible  whirlpools. 

He  confirms  Father  Hennepin's  and  Mr.  Kelug's  [?] 
account  of  the  large  trouts  of  those  lakes,  and  solemnly 
affirmed  there  was  one  taken  lately,  that  weighed  86  Ib. 
which  I  am  rather  inclined  to  believe,  on  the  general  rule, 
that  fish  are  according  to  the  waters.  To  confirm  which,  a 
very  worthy  minister  affirmed,  that  he  saw  a  pike  taken  in 
Canada  river,  and  carried  on  a  pole  between  two  men,  that 
measured  five  feet  ten  inches  in  length,  and  proportionably 
thick. 


PIERRE  F.  X.  DE  CHARLEVOIX,  S.  J.,  1721. 

Father  Charlevoix,  best  known  of  all  the  early  Jesuit 
writers  on  America,  twice  visited  Canada  and  voyaged 
down  the  Mississippi.  He  came  to  the  Niagara  in  May, 
1721.  In  the  original  French  edition  of  his  "History  of 


320  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

New  France,"  volume  three  consists  of  his  "Journal,"  in 
the  form  of  a  series  of  letters  to  the  Duchess  de  Lesdi- 
guieres.  Three  letters  are  dated  respectively,  "Niagara, 
May  23,"  "Falls  of  Niagara,  May  26,"  and  "Entrance  to 
Lake  Erie,  May  27,"  1721.  In  the  first  English  edition  of 
the  "Journal,"  the  second  Niagara  letter  is  erroneously 
dated  "May  14."  In  the  following  extracts  I  have  in  the 
main  followed  the  old  English  translation,  which  though 
now  and  then  quaint  in  form,  is  true  to  the  original.  A 
few  omissions  have  also  been  supplied.  So  far  as  I  am 
aware,  Charlevoix  is  the  first  writer  to  use  the  word  "horse- 
shoe" ["fer  a  chevd"]  in  description  of  the  greater  fall. 

[NIAGARA,  May  23,  1721.] 

.  .  .  Now,  Madam,  we  must  acknowledge,  that  noth- 
ing but  zeal  for  the  public  good  could  possibly  induce  an 
officer  to  remain  in  such  a  country  as  this,  than  which  a 
wilder  and  more  frightful  is  not  to  be  seen.  On  the  one  side 
you  see  just  under  your  feet,  and  as  it  were  at  the  bottom 
of  an  abyss,  a  great  river,  but  which  in  this  place  is  like  a 
torrent  by  its  rapidity,  by  the  whirlpools  formed  by  a  thou- 
sand rocks,  through  which  it  with  difficulty  finds  a  passage, 
and  by  the  foam  with  which  it  is  always  covered;  on  the 
other  the  view  is  confined  by  three  mountains  placed  one 
over  the  other,  and  whereof  the  last  hides  itself  in  the 
clouds.  This  would  have  been  a  very  proper  scene  for  the 
poets  to  make  the  Titans  attempt  to  scale  the  heavens.  In 
a  word,  on  whatever  side  you  turn  your  eyes,  you  discover 
nothing  which  does  not  inspire  a  secret  horror. 

You  have,  however,  but  a  very  short  way  to  go,  to  behold 
a  very  different  prospect.  Behind  those  uncultivated  and 
uninhabitable  mountains,  you  enjoy  the  sight  of  a  rich 
country,  magnificent  forests,  beautiful  and  fruitful  hills; 
you  breathe  the  purest  air,  under  the  mildest  and  most 
temperate  climate  imaginable,  situated  between  two  lakes 
the  least  of  which  is  two  hundred  and  fifty  leagues  in 
circuit. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  321 

[Ax  THE  FALLS  OF  NIAGARA,  May  26,  1721.] 
.  .  .  The  officers  having  departed,  I  ascended  those 
frightful  mountains,  in  order  to  visit  the  famous  Fall  of 
Niagara,  above  which  I  was  to  take  water;  this  is  a  journey 
of  three  leagues  though  formerly  five;  because  the  way 
then  lay  by  the  other,  that  is,  the  west  side  of  the  river,  and 
also  because  the  place  for  embarking  lay  full  two  leagues 
above  the  Fall.  But  there  has  since  been  found,  on  the  left, 
at  the  distance  of  half  a  quarter  of  a  league  from  this 
cataract,  a  creek,  where  the  current  is  not  perceivable,  and 
consequently  a  place  where  one  may  take  water  without 
danger.  My  first  care,  after  my  arrival,  was  to  visit  the 
noblest  cascade  perhaps  in  the  world ;  but  I  presently  found 
the  Baron  de  la  Hontan  had  committed  such  a  mistake  with 
respect  to  its  height  and  figure,  as  to  give  grounds  to  believe 
he  had  never  seen  it. 

It  is  certain,  that  if  you  measure  its  height  by  that  of  the 
three  mountains,  you  are  obliged  to  climb  to  get  at  it,  it 
does  not  come  short  of  what  the  map  of  M.  Deslisle  makes 
it ;  that  is,  six  hundred  feet,  having  certainly  gone  into  this 
paradox,  either,  on  the  faith  of  the  Baron  de  la  Hontan  or 
Father  Hennepin ;  but  after  I  arrived  at  the  summit  of 
the  third  mountain,  I  observed,  that  in  the  space  of  three 
leagues,  which  I  had  to  walk  before  I  came  to  this  fall  of 
water,  though  you  are  sometimes  obliged  to  ascend,  you 
must  yet  descend  still  more,  a  circumstance  to  which  trav- 
ellers seem  not  to  have  sufficiently  attended.  As  it  is  im- 
possible to  approach  it  but  on  one  side  only,  and  conse- 
quently to  see  it,  excepting  in  profile,  or  sideways ;  it  is  no 
easy  matter  to  measure  its  height  with  instruments.  It  has, 
Tiowever,  been  attempted  by  means  of  a  pole  tied  to  a  long 
line,  and  after  many  repeated  trials,  it  has  been  found  only 
one  hundred  and  fifteen,  or  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet 
high.  But  it  is  impossible  to  be  sure  that  the  pole  has  not 
been  stopt  by  some  projecting  rock;  for  though  it  was 
always  drawn  up  wet,  as  well  as  the  end  of  the  line  to  which 
it  was  tied,  this  proves  nothing  at  all,  as  the  water  which 
precipitates  itself  from  the  mountain,  rises  very  high  in 


322  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

foam.  For  my  own  part,  after  having  examined  it  on  all 
sides,  where  it  could  be  viewed  to  the  greatest  advantage, 
I  am  inclined  to  think  we  cannot  allow  it  less  than  one  hun- 
dred and  forty,  or  fifty  feet. 

As  to  its  figure,  it  is  in  the  shape  of  a  horseshoe,  and  is 
about  four  hundred  paces  in  circumference;  it  is  divided 
into  two,  exactly  in  the  middle,  by  a  very  narrow  island, 
half  a  quarter  of  a  league  long.  It  is  true,  those  two  parts 
very  soon  unite;  that  on  my  side,  and  which  I  could  only 
have  a  side  view  of,  has  several  branches  which  project 
from  the  body  of  the  cascade,  but  that  which  I  viewed  in 
front,  appeared  to  me  quite  entire.  The  Baron  de  la 
Hontan  mentions  a  torrent  which  comes  from  the  West,  but 
which  if  this  author  has  not  invented  it,  must  certainly  fall 
through  some  channel  on  the  melting  of  the  snows. 

You  may  easily  guess,  Madam,  that  a  great  way  below 
this  Fall,  the  river  still  retains  strong  marks  of  so  violent  a 
shock ;  accordingly,  it  becomes  only  navigable  three  leagues 
below,  and  exactly  at  the  place  which  M.  de  Joncaire  has 
chosen  for  his  residence.  It  should  by  right  be  equally 
unnavigable  above  it,  since  the  river  falls  perpendicular  the 
whole  space  of  its  breadth.  But  besides  the  island,  which 
divides  it  into  two,  several  rocks  which  are  scattered  up  and 
down  above  it,  abate  much  of  the  rapidity  of  the  stream; 
it  is  notwithstanding  so  very  strong,  that  ten  or  twelve 
Cutaways  trying  to  cross  over  to  the  island  to  shun  the 
Iroquoise  who  were  in  pursuit  of  them,  were  drawn  into 
the  precipice,  in  spite  of  all  their  efforts  to  preserve  them- 
selves. 

I  have  heard  say  that  the  fish  that  happen  to  be  entangled 
in  the  current,  fall  dead  into  the  river,  and  that  the  Indians 
of  those  parts  were  considerably  advantaged  by  them;  but 
I  saw  nothing  of  this  sort.  I  was  also  told,  that  the  birds 
that  attempted  to  fly  over  were  sometimes  caught  in  the 
whirlwind  formed,  by  the  violence  of  the  torrent.  But  I 
observed  quite  the  contrary,  for  I  saw  small  birds  flying 
very  low,  and  exactly  over  the  Fall,  which  yet  cleared  their 
passage  very  well. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  323 

This  sheet  of  water  falls  upon  a  rock,  and  there  are  two 
reasons  which  induce  me  to  believe  that  it  has  either,  found, 
or  perhaps  in  time  hollowed  out  a  cavern  of  considerable 
depth.  The  first  is,  that  the  noise  it  makes  is  very  hollow, 
resembling  that  of  thunder  at  a  distance.  You  can  scarce 
hear  it  at  M.  de  Joncaire's,  and  what  you  hear  in  this  place, 
may  possibly  be  only  that  of  the  whirlpools  caused  by  the 
rocks,  which  fill  the  bed  of  the  river  as  far  as  this.  And 
so  much  the  rather  as  above  the  cataract,  you  do  not  hear 
it  near  so  far.  The  second  is,  that  nothing  has  ever  been 
seen  again  that  has  once  fallen  over  it,  not  even  the  wrecks 
of  the  canoe  of  the  Cutaways,  I  mentioned  just  now.  Be 
this  as  it  will,  Ovid  gives  us  the  description  of  such  another 
cataract  situated  according  to  him  in  the  delightful  valley 
of  Tempe.  I  will  not  pretend  that  the  country  of  Niagara 
is  as  fine  as  that,  though  I  believe  its  cataract  much  the 
noblest  of  the  two. 

Besides  I  perceived  no  mist  above  it,  but  from  behind, 
at  a  distance,  one  would  take  it  for  smoke,  and  there  is  no 
person  who  would  not  be  deceived  with  it,  if  he  came  in 
sight  of  the  isle,  without  having  been  told  before-hand  that 
there  was  so  surprising  a  cataract  in  this  place. 

The  soil  of  the  three  leagues  I  had  to  go  afoot  to  get 
hither,  and  which  is  called  the  carrying-place  of  Niagara, 
seems  very  indifferent;  it  is  even  very  ill-wooded,  and  you 
cannot  walk  ten  paces  without  treading  on  ant-hills,  or 
meeting  with  rattle-snakes,  especially  during  the  heat  of 
the  day.  .  .  . 


FATHER  BONNECAMPS'  DESCRIPTION,  1749. 

In  the  summer  of  1749,  a  French  expedition  headed  by 
Pierre  Joseph  Celoron,  passed  up  the  Niagara,  bound  for 
the  Ohio.  With  it  was  the  Jesuit  Joseph  Pierre  de  Bonne- 
camps,  hydrographer  at  the  Jesuit  college  in  Quebec.  He 
kept  a  journal  of  the  expedition,  which  arrived  at  the 
Niagara  June  3Oth.  Of  the  Falls  he  wrote: 


324  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VJSITORS. 

The  famous  waterfall  of  Niagara  is  very  nearly  equi- 
distant from  the  two  lakes.  It  is  formed  by  a  rock  cleft 
vertically,  and  is  133  feet,  according  to  my  measurement, 
which  I  believe  to  be  exact.  Its  figure  is  a  half -ellipse, 
divided  near  the  middle  by  a  little  island.  The  width  of 
the  fall  is  perhaps  three-eighths  of  a  league.  The  water 
falls  in  foam  over  the  length  of  the  rock,  and  is  received 
in  a  large  basin,  over  which  hangs  a  continual  mist. 


PETER  KALM'S  ACCOUNT,  1750. 

In  1750  there  came  to  the  Niagara  the  eminent  Swedish 
botanist,  Peter  Kalm,  "Professor  of  Oeconomy  in  the 
University  of  Aobo  in  Swedish  Finland,  and  Member  of 
the  Swedish  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,"  who  wrote  a  big 
book  about  America  and  left  Niagara  out.  I  am  not 
familiar  with  his  work  in  the  original;  but  in  John  R. 
Forster's  English  translation  (Warrington,  1770)  I  find  it 
stated  that  "the  author,  who  ...  is  still  living,  has  not 
yet  finished  this  work;  .  .  .  the  journal  of  a  whole 
year's  traveling,  and  especially  his  expedition  to  the  Iro- 
quese,  and  fort  Niagara,  are  still  to  come."  It  does  not 
appear  that  Professor  Kalm  ever  completed  the  work  as 
suggested;  but  at  Albany,  Sept.  2,  1850,  he  wrote  a  long 
letter  to  a  friend  in  Philadelphia.  If  originally  written  in 
English,  I  believe  it  is  the  first  detailed  account  of  Niagara, 
not  a  translation,  to  appear  in  that  language.  It  follows 
herewith : 

ALBANY,  Sep.  2,  1750. 

SIR — After  a  pretty  long  journey  made  in  a  short  time, 
I  am  come  back  to  this  town.  You  may  remember,  that 
when  I  took  my  leave  of  you,  I  told  you,  I  would  this  sum- 
mer, if  time  permitted,  take  a  view  of  Niagara  Fall, 
esteemed  one  of  the  greatest  curiosities  in  the  World.  When 
I  came  last  year  from  Quebec,  you  inquired  of  me  several 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  326 

particulars  concerning  this  fall;  and  I  told  you  what  I 
heard  of  it  in  Canada,  from  several  French  gentlemen  who 
had  been  there :  but  this  was  still  all  hearsay ;  I  could  not 
assure  you  of  the  truth  of  it,  because  I  had  not  then  seen 
it  myself,  and  so  it  could  not  satisfy  my  own,  much  less 
your  curiosity.  Now,  since  I  have  been  on  the  spot,  it  is 
in  my  power  to  give  you  a  more  perfect  and  satisfactory 
description  of  it. 

After  a  fatiguing  travel,  first  on  horseback  thro'  the 
country  of  the  Six  Nations,  to  Oswego,  and  from  thence 
in  a  batteau  upon  Lake  Ontario,  I  came  on  the  i2th  of 
August  in  the  evening  to  Niagara  fort.  The  French  there 
seemed  much  perplexed  at  my  first  coming,  imagining  I 
was  an  English  officer,  who  under  pretext  of  seeing  Niagara 
Falls,  came  with  some  other  view ;  but  as  soon  as  I  shew'd 
them  my  passports,  they  changM  their  behaviour,  and 
received  me  with  the  greatest  civility.  Niagara  Fall  is  six 
French  leagues  from  Niagara  Fort.  You  first  go  three 
leagues  by  water  up  Niagara  river,  and  then  three  leagues 
over  the  carrying  place.  As  it  was  late  when  I  arriv'd  at 
the  Fort,  I  could  not  the  same  day  go  to  the  Fall,  but  I 
prepared  myself  to  do  it  the  next  morning.  The  com- 
mandant of  the  Fort,  Monsr.  Beaujou,  invited  all  the  officers 
and  gentlemen  there  to  supper  with  him.  I  had  read 
formerly  almost  all  the  authors  that  have  wrote  any  thing 
about  this  Fall ;  and  the  last  year  in  Canada,  had  made  so 
many  enquiries  about  it,  that  I  thought  I  had  a  pretty  good 
Idea  of  it;  and  now  at  supper,  requested  the  gentlemen  to 
tell  me  all  they  knew  and  thought  worth  notice  relating  to 
it,  which  they  accordingly  did. 

I  observed  that  in  many  things  they  all  agreed,  in  some 
things  they  were  of  different  opinions,  of  all  which  I  took 
particular  notice.  When  they  had  told  me  all  they  knew, 
I  made  several  quiries  to  them  concerning  what  I  had  read 
and  heard  of  it,  whether  such  and  such  a  thing  was  true 
or  not?  and  had  their  answers  on  every  circumstance.  But 
as  I  have  found  by  experience  in  my  other  travels,  that 
very  few  observe  nature's  works  with  accuracy,  or  report 


326  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY   VISITORS. 

the  truth  precisely,  I  cannot  now  be  entirely  satisfied  with- 
out seeing  with  my  own  eyes  whenever  'tis  in  my  power. 

Accordingly  the  next  morning,  being  the  I3th  of  August, 
at  break  of  day,  I  set  out  for  the  Fall.  The  commandant 
had  given  orders  to  two  of  the  Officers  of  the  Fort  to  go 
with  me  and  shew  me  every  thing,  and  also  sent  by  them 
an  order  to  Monsr.  Joncaire,  who  had  liv'd  ten  years  by  the 
carrying-place,  and  knew  every  thing  worth  notice  of  the 
Fall,  better  than  any  other  person,  to  go  with  me,  and  shew 
and  tell  me  whatever  he  knew.  A  little  before  we  came  to 
the  carrying-place,  the  water  of  Niagara  River  grew  so 
rapid,  that  four  men  in  a  light  birch  canoe,  had  much  diffi- 
culty to  get  up  thither.  Canoes  can  go  half  a  league  above 
the  beginning  of  the  carrying-place,  tho'  they  must  work 
against  a  water  extremely  rapid;  but  higher  up  it  is  quite 
impossible,  the  whole  course  of  the  water  for  two  leagues 
and  a  half  up  to  the  great  Fall,  being  a  series  of  smaller 
Falls,  one  under  another,  in  which  the  greatest  canoe  or 
Batteau  would  in  a  moment  be  turn'd  upside  down. 

We  went  ashore  therefore,  and  walk'd  over  the  carrying- 
place,  having  besides  the  high  and  steep  side  of  the  river, 
two  great  hills  to  ascend  one  above  the  other.  Here  on  the 
carrying-place  I  saw  above  200  Indians,  most  of  them 
belonging  to  the  Six  Nations,  busy  in  carrying  packs  of  furs, 
chiefly  of  deer  and  bear,  over  the  carrying-place.  You 
would  be  surpris'd  to  see  what  abundance  of  these  things 
are  brought  every  day  over  this  place.  An  Indian  gets  20 
pence  for  every  pack  he  carries  over,  the  distance  being 
three  leagues. 

Half  an  hour  past  10  in  the  morning,  we  came  to  the 
great  Fall,  which  I  found  as  follows.  To  the  river  (or 
rather  strait),  runs  here  from  S.  S.  E.  to  N.  N.  W.  and  the 
rocks  of  the  great  Fall  crosses  it,  not  in  a  right  line,  but 
forming  almost  the  figure  of  a  semicircle  or  horseshoe. 
Above  the  Fall,  in  the  middle  of  the  river  is  an  island,  lying 
also  S.  S.  E.  and  N.  N.  W.  or  parallel  with  the  sides  of  the 
river;  its  length  is  about  7  or  8  French  arpents  (an  arpent 
being  180  feet).  The  lower  end  of  this  Island  is  just  at  the 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  327 

perpendicular  edge  of  the  Fall.  On  both  sides  of  this  island 
runs  all  the  water  that  comes  from  the  lakes  of  Canada,  viz. 
Lake  Superior,  lake  Mischigan,  lake  Huron,  and  lake  Erie, 
which  you  know  are  rather  small  seas  than  lakes,  and  have 
besides  a  great  many  large  rivers  that  empty  their  water  in 
them,  of  which  the  greatest  part  comes  down  this  Niagara 
Fall.  Before  the  water  comes  to  this  island,  it  runs  but 
slowly,  compar'd  with  its  motion  when  it  approaches  the 
island,  where  it  grows  the  most  rapid  water  in  the  World, 
running  with  surprizing  swiftness  before  it  conies  to  the 
Fall;  it  is  quite  white,  and  in  many  places  is  thrown  high 
up  into  the  air !  The  greatest  and  strongest  batteaux  would 
here  in  a  moment  be  turn'd  over  and  over. 

The  water  that  goes  down  on  the  west  side  of  the  island, 
is  more  rapid,  in  greater  abundance,  whiter,  and  seems 
almost  to  outdo  an  arrow  in  swiftness.  When  you  are  at 
the  Fall,  and  look  up  the  river,  you  may  see,  that  the  river 
above  the  Fall  is  every  where  exceedingly  steep,  almost  as 
the  side  of  a  hill.  When  all  this  water  comes  to  the  very 
Fall,  there  it  throws  itself  down  perpendicular!  It  is  be- 
yond all  belief  the  surprize  when  you  see  this!  I  cannot 
with  words  express  how  amazing  it  is!  You  cannot  see  it 
without  being  quite  terrified ;  to  behold  so  vast  a  quantity 
of  water  falling  headlong  from  a  surprizing  height ! 

I  doubt  not  but  you  have  a  desire  to  learn  the  exact 
height  of  this  great  Fall.  Father  Hennepin  supposes  it  600 
Feet  perpendicular;  but  he  has  gained  little  credit  in 
Canada;  the  name  of  honour  they  give  him  there,  is  un 
grand  Menteur,  or  The  Great  Liar;  he  writes  of  what  he 
saw  in  places  where  he  never  was.  'Tis  true  he  saw  this 
Fall:  but  as  it  is  the  way  of  some  travellers  to  magnify 
everything,  so  he  has  done  with  regard  to  the  fall  of 
Niagara.  This  humour  of  travellers,  has  occasioned  me 
many  disappointments  in  my  travels,  having  seldom  been 
so  happy  as  to  find  the  wonderful  things  that  had  been 
related  by  others.  For  my  part,  who  am  not  fond  of  the 
Marvellous,  I  like  to  see  things  just  as  they  are,  and  so  to 
relate  them. 


328  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

Since  Father  Hennepin's  time,  this  Fall  by  all  the  ac- 
counts that  have  been  given  of  it,  has  grown  less  and  less ; 
and  those  who  have  measur'd  it  with  mathematical  instru- 
ments find  the  perpendicular  fall  of  the  water  to  be  exactly 
137  feet.  Monsr.  Morandrier,  the  king's  engineer  in 
Canada,  assured  me,  and  gave  it  me  also  under  his  hand, 
that  137  Feet  was  precisely  the  height  of  it;  and  all  the 
French  Gentlemen  that  were  present  with  me  at  the  Fall, 
did  agree  with  him,  without  the  least  contradiction:  it  is 
true,  those  who  have  try'd  to  measure  it  with  a  line,  find  it 
sometimes  140,  sometimes  150  feet,  and  sometimes  more; 
but  the  reason  is,  it  cannot  that  way  be  measured  with  any 
certainty,  the  water  carrying  away  the  Line.  When  the 
water  is  come  down  to  the  bottom  of  the  rock  of  the  Fall,  it 
jumps  back  to  a  very  great  height  in  the  air ;  in  other  places 
it  is  as  white  as  milk  or  snow;  and  all  in  motion  like  a 
boiling  chaldron. 

You  may  remember,  to  what  a  great  distance  Hennepin 
says  the  noise  of  this  great  Fall  may  be  heard.  All  the 
gentlemen  who  were  with  me,  agreed,  that  the  farthest  one 
can  hear  it  is  15  leagues,  and  that  very  seldom.  When  the 
air  is  quite  calm,  you  can  hear  it  to  Niagara  Fort;  but 
seldom  at  other  times,  because  when  the  wind  blows,  the 
waves  of  Lake  Ontario  make  too  much  noise  there  against 
the  Shore.  They  informed  me,  that  when  they  hear  at  the 
Fort  the  noise  of  the  Fall,  louder  than  ordinary,  they  are 
sure  a  North  East  Wind  will  follow,  which  never  fails :  this 
seems  wonderful,  as  the  Fall  is  South  West  from  the  Fort : 
and  one  would  imagine  it  to  be  rather  a  sign  of  a  contrary 
wind.  Sometimes,  'tis  said,  the  Fall  makes  a  much  greater 
noise  than  at  other  times,  and  this  is  look'd  upon  as  a  certain 
mark  of  approaching  bad  weather,  or  rain;  the  Indians 
here  hold  it  always  for  a  sure  sign.  When  I  was  there,  it 
did  not  make  an  extraordinary  great  noise:  just  by  the 
Fall,  we  could  easily  hear  what  each  other  said,  without 
speaking  much  louder  than  common  when  conversing  in 
other  places.  I  do  not  know  how  others  have  found  so  great 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  329 

a  noise  here,  perhaps  it  was  at  certain  times,  as  above 
mentioned. 

From  the  Place  where  the  water  falls,  there  rise  abun- 
dance of  vapours,  like  the  greatest  and  thickest  smoke, 
sometimes  more,  sometimes  less :  these  vapours  rise  high  in 
the  air  when  it  is  calm,  but  are  dispersed  by  the  wind  when 
it  blows  hard.  If  you  go  nigh  to  this  vapour  or  fog,  or  if 
the  wind  blows  it  on  you,  it  is  so  penetrating,  that  in  a  few 
minutes  you  will  be  as  wet  as  if  you  had  been  under  water. 
I  got  two  young  Frenchmen  to  go  down,  to  bring  me  from 
the  side  of  the  Fall  at  the  bottom,  some  of  each  of  the 
several  kinds  of  herbs,  stones  and  shells  they  should  find 
there :  they  returned  in  a  few  minutes,  and  I  really  thought 
they  had  fallen  into  the  water;  they  were  obliged  to  strip 
themselves  quite  naked,  and  hang  their  clothes  in  the  sun 
to  dry.  When  you  are  on  the  other  East  side  of  the  Lake 
Ontario,  a  great  many  leagues  from  the  Fall,  you  may, 
every  clear  and  calm  morning,  see  the  vapours  of  the  Fall 
rising  in  the  air ;  you  would  think  all  the  woods  thereabouts 
were  set  on  fire  by  the  Indians,  so  great  is  the  apparent 
smoak.  In  the  same  manner  you  may  see  it  on  the  West 
side  of  the  lake  Erie,  a  great  many  leagues  off. 

Several  of  the  French  gentlemen  told  me,  that  when 
birds  come  flying  into  this  fog  or  smoak  of  the  fall,  they 
fall  down  and  perish  in  the  Water,  either  because  their 
wings  are  become  wet,  or  that  the  noise  of  the  fall  aston- 
ishes them,  and  they  know  not  where  to  go  in  the  Dark: 
but  others  were  of  opinion,  that  seldom  or  never  any  bird 
perishes  in  that  manner ;  because,  as  they  all  agreed,  among 
the  abundance  of  birds  found  dead  below  the  fall,  there  are 
no  other  sorts  than  such  as  live  and  swim  frequently  in  the 
water;  as  swans,  geese,  ducks,  water-hens,  teal,  and  the 
like.  And  very  often  great  flocks  of  them  are  seen  going 
to  destruction  in  this  manner ;  they  swim  in  the  river  above 
the  fall,  and  so  are  carried  down  lower  and  lower  by  the 
water,  and  as  water-fowl  commonly  take  great  delight  in 
being  carry'd  with  the  stream,  so  here  they  indulge  them- 
selves in  enjoying  this  pleasure  so  long,  till  the  swiftness  of 


330  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

the  water  becomes  so  great,  that  'tis  no  longer  possible  for 
them  to  rise,  but  they  are  driven  down  the  precipice,  and 
perish.  They  are  observ'd  when  they  draw  nigh  the  fall,  to 
endeavour  with  all  their  might,  to  take  wing  and  leave  the 
water,  but  they  cannot.  In  the  months  of  September  and 
October,  such  abundant  quantities  of  dead  waterfowl  are 
found  every  morning  below  the  Fall,  on  the  shore,  that  the 
garrison  of  the  fort  for  a  long  time  live  chiefly  upon  them ; 
besides  the  fowl,  they  find  also  several  sorts  of  dead  fish, 
also  deer,  bears,  and  other  animals  which  have  tried  to  cross 
the  water  above  the  fall;  the  larger  animals  are  generally 
found  broken  to  pieces.  Just  below  the  fall  the  water  is  not 
rapid,  but  goes  all  in  circles  and  whirls  like  a  boiling  pot; 
which  however  doth  not  hinder  the  Indians  going  upon  it 
in  small  canoes  a  fishing;  but  a  little  lower  begins  the 
smaller  fall.  When  you  are  above  the  fall,  and  look  down, 
your  head  begins  to  turn :  the  French  who  have  been  here 
100  times,  will  seldom  venture  to  look  down,  without  at  the 
same  time  keeping  fast  hold  of  some  tree  with  one  hand. 

It  was  formerly  thought  impossible  for  any  body  living 
to  come  at  the  Island  that  is  in  the  middle  of  the  fall :  but 
an  accident  that  happen'd  12  years  ago,  or  thereabouts,  made 
it  appear  otherwise.  The  history  is  this.  Two  Indians  of 
the  Six  Nations  went  out  from  Niagara  fort,  to  hunt  upon 
an  island  that  is  in  the  middle  of  the  river,  or  strait,  above 
the  great  fall,  on  which  there  used  to  be  abundance  of  deer. 
They  took  some  French  brandy  with  them,  from  the  fort, 
which  they  tasted  several  times  as  they  were  going  over 
the  carrying-place;  and  when  they  were  in  the  canoe,  they 
took  now  and  then  a  dram,  and  so  went  along  up  the  strait 
towards  the  Island  where  they  propos'd  to  hunt,  but  grow- 
ing sleepy,  they  laid  themselves  down  in  the  canoe,  which 
getting  loose  drove  back  with  the  stream,  farther  and  far- 
ther down  till  it  came  nigh  that  island  that  is  in  the  middle 
of  the  fall.  Here  one  of  them,  awakened  by  the  noise  of  the 
fall,  cries  out  to  the  other,  that  they  were  gone!  yet  they 
tri'd  if  possible  to  save  life.  This  island  was  nighest,  and 
with  much  working  they  got  on  shore  there.  At  first  they 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  331 

were  glad ;  but  when  they  had  considered  every  thing,  they 
thought  themselves  hardly  in  a  better  state  than  if  they  had 
gone  down  the  fall,  since  they  had  now  no  other  choice, 
than  either  to  throw  themselves  down  the  same,  or  to  perish 
with  hunger.  But  hard  necessity  put  them  on  invention. 
At  the  lower  end  of  the  island  the  rock  is  perpendicular, 
and  no  water  is  running  there.  This  island  has  plenty  of 
wood;  they  went  to  work  directly  and  made  a  ladder  or 
shrouds  of  the  bark  of  linden  tree,  (which  is  very  tough 
and  strong)  so  long  till  they  could  with  it  reach  the  water 
below;  one  end  of  this  bark  ladder  they  tied  fast  to  a 
great  tree  that  grew  at  the  side  of  the  rock  above  the  fall, 
and  let  the  other  end  down  to  the  water.  So  they  went 
down  along  their  new-invented  stairs,  and  when  they  came 
to  the  bottom  in  the  middle  of  the  fall,  they  rested  a  little ; 
and  as  the  water  next  below  the  fall  is  not  rapid,  as  before- 
mentioned,  they  threw  themselves  out  into  it,  thinking  to 
swim  on  shore.  I  have  said  before,  that  one  part  of  the  fall 
is  on  one  side  of  the  island,  the  other  on  the  other  side. 
Hence  it  is,  that  the  waters  of  the  two  cataracts  running 
against  each  other,  turn  back  against  the  rock  that  is  just 
under  the  island.  Therefore,  hardly  had  the  Indians  began 
to  swim,  before  the  waves  of  the  eddy  threw  them  with 
violence  against  the  rock  from  whence  they  came.  They 
tried  it  several  times,  but  at  last  grew  weary;  and  being 
often  thrown  against  the  rock  they  were  much  brus'd,  and 
the  skin  of  their  bodies  torn  in  many  places.  So  they  were 
obliged  to  climb  up  their  stairs  again  to  the  island,  not 
knowing  what  to  do.  After  some  time  they  perceived 
Indians  on  the  shore,  to  whom  they  cried  out.  These  saw 
and  pity'd  them,  but  gave  them  little  hopes  of  help ;  yet  they 
made  haste  down  to  the  fort,  and  told  the  commandant 
where  two  of  their  brethren  were.  He  persuaded  them  to 
try  all  possible  means  of  relieving  the  two  poor  Indians; 
and  it  was  done  in  this  manner.  The  water  that  runs  on 
the  east  side  of  this  island  is  shallow,  especially  a  little 
above  the  island  towards  the  eastern  shore.  The  comman- 
dant caused  poles  to  be  made  and  pointed  with  iron:  two 


332  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

Indians  determined  to  walk  to  this  island  by  the  help  of 
these  poles,  to  save  the  other  poor  creatures,  or  perish 
themselves.  They  took  leave  of  all  their  friends  as  if  they 
were  going  to  death.  Each  had  two  such  poles  in  his  hands, 
to  set  against  the  bottom  of  the  stream,  to  keep  them  steady. 
So  they  went  and  got  to  the  island,  and  having  given  poles 
to  the  two  poor  Indians  there,  they  all  returned  safely  to 
the  main.  Those  two  Indians  who  in  the  abovementioned 
manner  were  first  brought  to  this  island,  are  yet  alive. 
They  were  nine  days  on  the  island,  and  almost  starved  to 
death. 

Now  since  the  way  to  this  island  has  been  found,  the 
Indians  go  there  often  to  kill  deer,  which  having  tried  to 
cross  the  river  above  the  fall,  were  driven  upon  the  island 
by  the  stream :  but  if  the  King  of  France  would  give  me  all 
Canada,  I  would  not  venture  to  go  to  this  island ;  and  were 
you  to  see  it,  Sir,  I  am  sure  you  would  have  the  same 
sentiment. 

On  the  West  side  of  this  island  are  some  small  islands 
or  rocks  of  no  consequence.  The  east  side  of  the  river  is 
nearly  perpendicular,  the  west  side  more  sloping.  In  former 
times  a  part  of  the  rock  at  the  Fall  which  is  on  the  west 
side  of  the  island,  hung  over  in  such  a  manner,  that  the 
water  which  fell  perpendicularly  from  it,  left  a  vacancy 
below,  so  that  people  could  go  under  between  the  rock  and 
the  water,  but  the  prominent  part  some  years  since  broke 
off  and  fell  down;  so  that  there  is  now  no  possibility  of 
going  between  the  falling  water  and  the  rock,  as  water  now 
runs  close  to  it  all  the  way  down. 

The  breadth  of  the  Fall,  as  it  runs  into  a  semicircle,  is 
reckon'd  to  be  about  six  Arpents.  The  island  is  in  the 
middle  of  the  Fall,  and  from  it  to  each  side  is  almost  the 
same  breadth :  the  breadth  of  the  island  at  its  lower  end  is 
two  thirds  of  an  Arpent,  or  thereabouts.  Below  the  Fall  in 
the  holes  of  the  rocks,  are  great  plenty  of  Eels,  which  the 
Indians  and  French  catch  with  their  hands  without  other 
means;  I  sent  down  two  Indians  boys,  who  directly  came 
up  with  about  twenty  fine  ones. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  333 

Every  day,  when  the  Sun  shines,  you  see  here  from  10 
o'clock  in  the  morning  to  2  in  the  afternoon,  below  the  Fall, 
and  under  you,  when  you  stand  at  the  side  over  the  Fall,  a 
glorious  rainbow  and  sometimes  two  rainbows,  one  within 
the  other.  I  was  so  happy  to  be  at  the  Fall  on  a  fine  clear 
day,  and  it  was  with  great  delight  I  viewed  this  rainbow, 
which  had  almost  all  the  colours  you  see  in  a  rainbow  in 
the  air.  The  more  vapours,  the  brighter  and  clearer  is  the 
rainbow.  I  saw  it  on  the  East  side  of  the  Fall  in  the  bottom 
under  the  place  where  I  stood,  but  above  the  water.  When 
the  wind  carries  the  vapours  from  that  place,  the  rainbow 
is  gone,  but  appears  again  as  soon  as  new  vapours  come. 

From  the  Fall  to  the  landing  above  the  Fall,  where  the 
canoes  from  Lake  Erie  put  on  shore  (or  from  the  Fall  to 
the  upper  end  of  the  carrying-place)  is  half  a  mile.  Lower 
the  canoes  dare  not  come,  lest  they  should  be  obliged  to  try 
the  fate  of  the  two  Indians,  and  perhaps  with  less  success. 

They  have  often  found  below  the  Fall  pieces  of  human 
bodies,  perhaps  drunken  Indians,  that  have  unhappily  came 
down  the  Fall.  I  was  told  at  Oswego,  that  in  October,  or 
thereabouts,  such  plenty  of  feathers  are  to  be  found  here 
below  the  Fall,  that  a  man  in  a  day's  time  can  gather  enough 
of  them  for  several  beds,  which  feathers  they  said  came  off 
the  birds  kill'd  at  the  Fall.  I  ask'd  the  French,  if  this  was 
true?  They  told  me  they  had  never  seen  any  such  thing; 
but  that  if  the  feathers  were  picked  off  the  dead  birds,  they 
might  be  such  a  quantity.  The  French  told  me,  they  had 
often  thrown  whole  trees  into  the  water  above,  to  see  them 
tumble  down  the  Fall.  They  went  down  with  surprising 
swiftness,  but  could  never  be  seen  afterwards;  whence  it 
was  thought  there  was  a  bottomless  deep  or  abyss  just  under 
the  Fall.  I  am  also  of  Opinion,  that  there  must  be  a  vast 
deep  here ;  yet  I  think  if  they  had  watched  very  well,  they 
might  have  found  the  trees  at  some  distance  below  the 
Fall.  The  rock  of  the  Fall  consists  of  a  grey  limestone. 

Here  you  have,  Sir,  a  short  but  exact  description  of  this 
famous  Niagara  cataract;  you  may  depend  on  the  truth  of 
what  I  write.  You  must  excuse  me  if  you  find  in  my  ac- 


334  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

count,  no  extravagant  wonders.  I  cannot  make  nature 
otherwise  than  I  find  it.  I  had  rather  it  should  be  said  of 
me  in  time  to  come,  that  I  related  things  as  they  were,  and 
that  all  is  found  to  agree  with  my  description;  than  to  be 
esteem'd  a  false  Relater.  I  have  seen  some  other  things  in 
this  my  journey,  an  account  of  which  I  know  would  gratify 
your  curiosity ;  but  time  at  present  wilf  not  permit  me  to 
write  more,  and  I  hope  shortly  to  see  you.  I  am  &c., 

PETER  KALM. 


THE  ABBE  PIQUET  IN  1751. 

Peter  Kalm  was  a  thorough  naturalist  and  a  good  ob- 
server. In  strong  contrast  is  the  next  visitor  I  am  able  to 
note — the  Sulpitian  priest,  the  Abbe  Franqois  Picquet,  who 
came  to  the  Niagara,  from  his  mission  near  the  present 
Ogdensburg,  in  1751.  Of  Niagara  he  wrote  the  following 
extraordinary  passage : 

"This  cascade  is  as  marvelous  for  its  height,  and  the 
quantity  of  water  which  falls  there,  as  for  the  diversity  of 
its  falls,  which  are  in  the  number  of  six  principal  ones 
separated  by  a  little  isle  which  puts  three  to  the  north  and 
three  to  the  south;  they  have  a  regular  symetry  and  an 
astonishing  effect." 


ADVENTURES  OF  M.  BONNEFONS,  1753. 

A  narrative  of  American  travel  and  adventure  very  little 
known,  and  I  believe  unpublished  as  yet  in  English,  is  the 
''Voyage  au  Canada  dans  le  Nord  de  I'Amerique  Septen- 
trionale  fait  depuis  I' an  1751  a  1761."  The  original  manu- 
script, written  in  journal  form  during  the  decade  1751  to 
1761,  was  at  last  accounts  in  the  possession  of  the  Marquis 
de  Bassano,  in  Paris.  The  National  Library  of  France 
possesses  a  manuscript  copy  of  it.  In  1887  it  was  printed, 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  335 

in  French,  at  Quebec,  with  some  editing  by  the  very  capable 
hand  of  the  Abbe  H.  R.  Casgrain.  The  only  acknowledg- 
ment of  authorship  on  the  original  manuscript  is  the  initials 
"J.  C.  B."  which  the  Abbe  Casgrain  ascertains,  with  prob- 
able accuracy,  to  stand  for  J.  C.  Bonnefons,  who  held 
various  posts  in  the  French  military  service  in  America,  and 
who  became  secretary  to  Capt.  Pouchot,  the  last  French 
defender  of  Fort  Niagara.  The  whole  journal  is  full  of 
interest;  but  I  translate  from  it  only  a  few  paragraphs 
relating  to  M.  Bonnefons'  adventures  at  Niagara  Falls  in 
1753.  A  few  errors  will  be  corrected  at  the  close  of  the 
quotation : 

Fort  Niagara,  situated  on  the  high  ground  and  at  the 
south  of  Lake  Ontario,  was  originally  named  Denonville. 
It  stands  on  an  elevated  spot  which  is  overlooked  by  moun- 
tains at  the  west  bordering  a  strait  three  leagues  in  length, 
which  bears  the  name  of  the  Niagara  river.  This  fort,  built 
in  1687,  was  palisaded.  It  was  rebuilt  and  fortified  in 
1763.  We  find  it  built  partly  of  stone  and  partly  of  wood, 
well  fortified  on  the  land  side  and  surrounded  with  ditches, 
with  bastions  supplied  with  eighteen  pieces  of  cannon,  a 
drawbridge  and  eighty  men  in  the  garrison. 

Opposite  this  fort,  at  the  north  and  nearly  at  the  end  of 
Lake  Ontario,  is  a  great  bay,  named  Toronto,  since  called 
by  the  English,  York  Bay.  On  the  shore  of  this  bay,  there 
had  been  built  by  order  of  the  Governor  Joncquiere  a  fort 
named  Toronto,  which  has  since  been  destroyed  as  useless. 

The  next  day,  April  I2th,  we  went  on  by  land.  From 
Fort  Niagara  we  ascended  the  three  mountains  which  are 
at  the  west  of  the  fort  and  on  the  top  of  each  of  which  we 
found  a  level  space  formed  of  flat  rock,  very  even,  which 
makes  a  resting  place  for  travelers  who  pass  there.  It  is 
about  two  leagues  from  the  bottom  to  the  top  of  the  moun- 
tains. When  we  had  reached  the  top  we  had  to  rest,  after 
which  we  continued  to  march.  At  a  quarter  of  a  league  to 
the  north  of  the  last  mountain  is  the  famous  fall  of  Niagara, 


336  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY   VISITORS. 

the  noise  of  which  may  be  heard  nearly  three  leagues.  At 
the  place  to  the  south  of  where  we  were  was  a  little  station, 
newly  established,  for  the  building  of  batteaux  and  canoes 
needed  for  the  navigation  of  Lake  Erie.  This  station  was 
named  Toronto,  the  English  gave  to  it  that  of  Scuyler  or 
Sckuiler.  At  the  time  of  our  passage  there  was  there  a 
garrison  of  forty  men,  Canadians,  all  boat  carpenters.  We 
rested  there  three  days,  during  which  they  loaded  the  pro- 
visions, ammunition  and  goods  which  we  had  to  take  with 
us  to  the  upper  end  of  Lake  Erie. 

The  curiosity  permitted  to  travelers  made  me  wish  to 
visit  the  Niagara  fall,  which  I  had  heard  spoken  of  as  a 
marvelous  curiosity.  I  was  one  of  three  to  go  there.  I 
examined  this  astonishing  cataract,  which  has  the  form  of 
a  crescent,  a  quarter  of  a  league  in  extent.  They  give  to  it 
the  height,  according  to  common  report,  of  180  feet.  It  is 
the  discharge  of  Lake  Erie,  and  receives  its  waters,  which  it 
throws  into  the  strait  or  river  of  Niagara,  which  then 
empties  into  Lake  Ontario  near  Fort  Niagara. 

The  approaches  to  this  fall  appear  inaccessible,  especially 
on  the  south  side  where  we  were,  and  present  from  both 
sides  a  rock  covered  witfTbushes,  which  grow  naturally  in 
the  crevices.  It  is  impossible  when  near  it  to  make  speaking 
heard,  unless  very  near  to  the  ears.  After  having  well 
examined  this  fall  from  above,  I  proposed  to  the  two  per- 
sons who  had  accompanied  me  to  go  down  below.  They 
opposed  the  difficulty  of  getting  there,  there  being  neither 
road,  nor  path,  nor  security,  and  that  the  undertaking  was 
perilous  and  rash  to  go  there  by  the  bushes,  which  ap- 
peared too  weak  to  sustain  us,  or  by  the  roots  which  were 
not  strong,  having  only  hold  in  the  joints  of  the  rock.  These 
reasons,  all  of  force  as  it  appeared  to  me,  did  not  prevent 
me  from  persisting  in  my  curiosity.  I  resolved  then  to 
expose  myself  alone  and  presently  I  began  to  descend  with 
the  intention  of  making  sure  of  the  branches  which  I 
encountered  on  my  way;  descending  backwards,  so  that  I 
would  not  let  go  one  after  another,  until  I  had  seized  others 
of  the  same  firmness. 


EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY   VISITORS.  337 

I  was  about  an  hour  in  getting  down,  not  without  com- 
mending myself  to  Providence,  for  I  perceived  the  rashness 
of  my  undertaking,  but  I  had  to  finish  as  much  from  pride 
as  from  curiosity.  Finally,  I  came  to  the  bottom,  at  about 
twenty  toises  from  the  foot  of  the  fall,  which  even  at  that 
distance,  did  not  prevent  me  from  being  drenched  by  the 
rain-like  spray  which  the  fall  made.  I  advanced  still  nearer. 
I  passed  over  a  fine  shingle  of  flat  rock,  which  led  me  under 
the  sheet  of  falling  water.  It  was  then  that  I  was  very 
much  more  drenched  and  felt  the  trembling  of  the  rocks 
caused  by  the  fall  of  water,  which  made  me  hesitate 
whether  I  ought  to  go  on  or  retreat.  However,  reflecting 
that  this  trembling  must  be  the  same  always,  I  resolved  to 
go  forward,  and  after  having  made  thirty  steps  more  I 
found  myself  in  a  sort  of  cavern,  formed  in  the  rocks,  in 
the  midst  of  which  ran  the  sheets  of  water  from  crevices  at 
several  points,  which  made  cascades,  agreeable  and  amusing 
enough  if  the  rain  caused  by  the  fall  had  permitted  me  to 
stay  there  a  little  time.  I  seemed  in  this  place  to  be  in  the 
midst  of  the  cataract.  The  noise  and  the  trembling  were 
very  great.  That  did  not  prevent  me  from  examining  the 
cavern,  which  appeared  of  a  length  of  six  toises  by  about 
twenty  feet  in  height.  Its  depth  was  scarcely  more  than 
fifteen  feet.  I  would  have  passed  it,  but  was  unable  to  go 
further  because  of  large  clefts  which  I  was  unable  to  cross. 
I  had  to  retrace  my  steps.  All  shivering  with  cold,  and 
drenched,  I  hastened  to  take  again  the  road  by  which  I  had 
descended.  I  climbed  up  the  bushes  quicker  than  I  had 
descended  them.  Arrived  on  top,  I  found  the  two  people 
with  whom  I  had  come.  They  wished  to  interrogate  me. 
This  was  futile.  I  was  deaf  and  was  not  able  to  hear  them. 
Cold  and  hunger  forced  me  to  hasten  to  Toronto,  where, 
being  arrived,  I  at  once  changed  my  clothes,  after  which 
late. 

It  was  not  until  two  hours  afterwards  that  the  deafness 
left  me  and  I  was  able  to  give  an  account  of  what  I  had 
seen.  I  have  since  questioned  several  travelers  to  learn  if 
they  had  knowledge  of  any  one  who  had  descended  this 


338  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY    VISITORS. 

fall.  They  had  heard  no  one  tell  of  it.  That  does  not  seem 
extraordinary  to  me,  knowing  that  the  Canadians  are  so 
little  curious  that  they  would  not  deign  to  turn  aside  from 
their  route  for  something  worthy  of  report.  This  indiffer- 
ence on  their  part  does  not  however  give  me  pretence  of 
being  the  only  one  who  may  have  risked  himself  in  this 
perilous  visit,  nor  that  there  will  not  be  found  in  days  to 
come  others  as  curious  as  I.  But  if  that  happens,  those 
who  will  have  the  enterprise  will  be  able  to  confirm  what  I 
report  to  have  seen. 

It  is  common  report  in  this  country  that  a  native  Iroquois, 
finding  himself  with  his  canoe  drawn  into  the  current  from 
above,  and  not  being  able  to  draw  out  of  the  force  of  it, 
wrapped  himself  in  his  blanket,  glided  along  in  his  canoe, 
and  abandoned  himself  to  the  current,  which  quickly  pre- 
cipitated him  over  the  fall,  where  he  was  swallowed  up 
with  his  canoe  without  reappearing.  I  have  seen  the  fall 
of  a  tree,  drawn  down  by  the  current,  which  did  not  again 
appear;  from  which  I  have  concluded  that  there  is  a  gulf 
where  everything  that  falls  from  above  is  swallowed  up. 

About  twenty  feet  above  this  fall  is  a  little  island, 
formed  of  rock,  some  fifteen  toises  in  length,  by  10  or  12 
feet  in  width,  overgrown  with  bushes,  with  one  single  tree 
in  the  midst.  The  water  of  Lake  Erie,  which  rushes  around 
it.  and  throws  itself  into  the  fall,  is  very  rapid  and  glides 
over  a  shelf  of  flat  rock  at  a  depth  of  four  or  five  feet, 
especially  on  the  side  to  the  south,  where  I  examined  it. 

One  finds  at  the  foot  of  the  fall,  along  the  river  Niagara, 
a  great  many  dead  fish.  Travelers  pretend  that  these  fish 
come  from  Lake  Erie.  They  find  they  have  become  drawn 
down  into  the  fall  by  the  rapidity  of  the  water.  I  have 
given  to  this  matter  a  reflection  which  seems  to  me  just.  It 
is  that  they  first  ascend  rather  than  descend,  and  that  com- 
ing from  Lake  Ontario,  ascending  near  to  the  fall,  they  are 
there  killed,  afterward  drawn  down  by  the  current  which 
throws  them  on  the  banks,  where  one  often  finds  them  only 
stunned.  Now  if  they  came  from  Lake  Erie  they  would  be 
killed  and,  what  is  more,  swallowed  up  in  the  fall. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  339 

It  is  said  also  that  birds  which  fly  over  the  fall  are  drawn 
into  it  in  spite  of  themselves,  by  the  force  of  the  air.  I 
am  not  sure  of  this  fact,  which,  however,  is  not  lacking  in 
probability,  since  there  is  often  seen  there  a  rainbow  which 
seems  strongly  to  attract  the  birds  who  direct  their  flight 
into  it,  where  they  become  confused  and  drenched,  lacking 
strength  to  ascend.  And  it  may  perhaps  be  only  birds  of 
passage,  for  those  which  inhabit  the  neighborhood  are  so 
accustomed  to  the  rainbow  and  to  the  noise  of  the  fall  that 
they  know  how  to  preserve  themselves,  since  they  are  seldom 
seen  there,  although  there  are  a  great  many  of  them  in 
this  vicinity. 

The  place  called  Toronto  is  not,  except  in  the  first 
allusion,  the  present  Toronto,  but  the  old  landing-place  above 
the  Falls,  long  known  as  Schlosser.  It  was  no  doubt  this  last 
name  that  Bonnefons  aimed  at  when  he  wrote  "Scuyler  ou 
Sckuiler"  The  early  French  writers  made  as  bad  a  mess 
of  English  names — or  in  this  case  of  a  German — as  the 
English  did  of  French  names.  One  has  but  to  look  at  Sir 
William  Johnson's  attempts  at  French  names  to  see  how 
bad  that  could  be.  I  have  used  the  old  French  word  "toise," 
which  occurs  in  Bonnefons'  journal ;  it  could  be  translated 
"fathom,"  or  six  feet.  The  "little  island"  described  by  M. 
Bonnefons  was  no  doubt  that  afterwards  named  Gull  island ; 
numerous  early  visitors  speak  of  it,  Tom  Moore  among 
others,  in  1804.  It  disappeared  not  many  years  later. 


DIARY  OF  RALPH  IZARD,  1765. 

The  following  is  a  portion  of  a  diary,  ascribed  to  Ralph 
Izard  of  South  Carolina;  it  was  published  anonymously  in 
New  York  in  1846,  it  is  said  by  his  grand-daughter,  Anna 
Izard  Deal.  The  writer  was  born  in  Charleston  in  1742. 
and  fell  heir  to  large  property,  both  in  land  and  slaves.  He 
was  educated  in  England ;  returning  to  America  he  married 


340  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

a  niece  of  Lt.  Gov.  De  Lancey.  It  was  apparently  before 
his  marriage  that  he  made  the  journey  to  Niagara  described 
in  his  journal.  In  1771  he  went  to  England,  residing  in 
London,  and,  after  the  outbreak  of  war  with  the  American 
colonies,  in  Paris.  He  returned  to  America  in  1780,  became 
devoted  to  the  patriot  cause,  and  pledged  his  estate  as 
security  to  the  Government,  when  Congress  was  trying  to 
arrange  for  the  purchase  of  ships  of  war  in  Europe.  In 
1782  he  was  a  delegate  to  the  Continental  Congress,  and 
from  1789  to  1795,  United  States  Senator  from  South 
Carolina,  and  a  part  of  the  time  president  pro  tern  of  the 
Senate.  He  stood  high  in  the  esteem  of  Washington,  and 
was  a  loyal  and  active  patriot;  he  was,  however,  says  a 
biographer,  "violent  in  his  temper  and  practically  useless 
as  a  diplomatist."  He  died  at  South  Bay,  near  Charleston, 
May  30,  1804.  The  following  extract  from  his  diary  pre- 
serves some  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  original : 

Monday,  2^th  June,  1765.  Went  with  my  three  com- 
panions on  board  a  sloop  for  Albany — a  very  hot  day,  with 
the  wind  at  south.  After  sailing  about  fifty  miles  through 
a  very  rocky  and  mountainous  country,  the  wind  came  about 
contrary  and  we  anchored.  Friday,  28th.  Arrived  at 
Albany,  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles  from  New  York. 
Albany  is  a  dirty,  ill-built  Dutch  town,  of  about  three  hun- 
dred houses;  stands  upon  Hudson's  River.  Dined  at 
Schuyler's.  July  2d.  Left  Albany  in  a  wagon,  came  to 
Schenectady.  Lay  at  Sir  William  Johnson's;  he  is  super- 
intendent for  Indian  affairs  in  the  northern  district.  Break- 
fasted at  Fort  Johnson,  where  Sir  William's  son  lives, 
eighteen  miles  from  Schenectady;  good  land  all  the  way 
thither.  Dined  with  Sir  William  at  Johnson  Hall.  Extra- 
ordinary good  land  about  his  house.  The  office  of  superin- 
tendent very  troublesome.  Sir  William  continually  plagued 
with  Indians  about  him,  generally  from  three  hundred  to 
nine  hundred  in  number — spoil  his  garden  and  keep  his 


EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY   VISITORS.  341 

house  always  dirty.  7th.  Left  Sir  William's;  lay  at 
Nicholas  Failings,  a  very  civil  Dutchman,  who  seemed  glad 
to  give  us  whatever  he  had  in  his  house;  it  is  forty-two 
miles  from  Schenectady.  8th.  Got  to  Nicholas  Harkimer's, 
sixteen  miles  from  Failings,  pf/r.  Fort  Harkimer,  eight 
miles.  The  land  about  it  belongs  to  old  Harkimer,  excellent 
land,  settled  by  Germans.  During  the  war  this  fort  was 
built  for  the  protection  of  the  neighborhood  from  the 
attacks  of  the  Six  Nation  Indians,  who  live  round  about  it. 
10th.  Discharged  our  wagon;  went  on  board  a  batteau; 
hunted  and  rowed  up  the  Mohawk  River  against  the  stream 
which,  on  account  of  the  rapidity  of  the  current,  is  very 
hard  work  for  the  poor  soldiers.  Encamped  on  the  banks 
of  the  river,  about  nine  miles  from  Harkimer's. 

The  inconveniences  attending  a  married  subaltern, 
strongly  appear  in  this  tour;  what  with  the  sickness  of 
their  wives,  the  squealing  of  their  children,  and  the  small- 
ness  of  their  pay  I  think  the  gentlemen  discover  no  un- 
common share  of  philosophy,  in  keeping  themselves  from 
running  mad.  Officers  and  soldiers,  with  their  wives  and 
children,  legitimate  and  illegitimate,  make  altogether  a 
pretty  compound  oglio,  which  does  not  tend  towards  show- 
ing military  matrimony  off  to  any  great  advantage. 

Friday  nth.  Got  to  Fort  Schuyler,  fifteen  miles  from 
our  last  night's  encampment.  A  little  block-house,  built 
during  the  late  war,  not  capable  of  containing  above  six  or 
eight  people. 

Saturday  i2th.  Had  a  disagreeable  ride  twenty-two 
miles  through  a  thick  wood,  with  a  bad  path,  to  Fort  Stan- 
wix  built  in  the  year  1759  by  General  Stanwix.  Lieutenant 
Allan  Grant  commanded  there. 

Monday  iqth.  Went  on  horseback  by  the  side  of  Wood- 
creek,  twenty  miles  to  the  royal  block-house,  a  kind  of 
wooden  castle;  proof  against  any  Indian  attacks.  It  is 
now  abandoned  by  the  troops,  and  a  settler  lives  there,  who 
keeps  rum,  milk,  rackoons,  etc.,  which  though  nothing  of 
the  most  elegant,  is  comfortable  to  strangers  passing  that 
way. 


342  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

This  block-house  is  situated  on  the  east  end  of  the  Oneida 
Lake,  and  is  surrounded  by  the  Oneida  Indians,  one  of  the 
Six  Nations.  Some  of  our  batteaux  not  being  come  up,  we 
stayed  next  day  at  the  block  house. 

i6th.  Embarked  and  rowed  to  the  west  end  of  the  lake 
which  is  twenty-eight  miles,  to  Fort  Brewington,  a  small 
stockade,  built  last  war.  The  Oneida  Lake  is  twenty  miles 
broad  from  north  to  south. 

i?th.  Rowed  down  Oswego  River  to  the  Onondaga 
Falls,  thirty-nine  miles.  These  falls,  are  so  rapid,  that  the 
batteaux  were  all  drawn  out  of  the  water,  and  rolled  twenty 
yards,  upon  logs,  made  for  that  purpose  below  the  Falls, 
where  we  encamped. 

1 8th.  Arrived  at  Fort  Ontario  (commanded  by  Captain 
Lieut.  Jonathan  Rogers  of  the  Seventeenth),  situated  on  the 
lake  of  that  name,  near  a  point  formed  by  the  lake  and 
Oswego  river.  Fort  Ontario  is  of  wood,  has  five  bastions, 
built  in  1759. 

Fort  Oswego,  which  was  taken  by  the  French,  is  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  river,  within  sight  of  this  Fort. 

Pondiach,  the  famous  Ottawa  chief,  with  fifty  head  men 
of  the  neighboring  Indians,  were  arrived  here  to  meet  Sir 
William  Johnson,  about  matters  of  consequence. 

2ist.    Sir  William  arrived. 

22d.  At  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  left  Fort  Ontario, 
encamped  on  the  banks  of  Lake  Ontario,  about  thirty  miles 
from  the  Fort. 

2$d.  Proceeded  and  encamped.  24th.  Arrived  late  in 
the  evening  at  Niagara  Fort,  one  hundred  and  seventy  miles 
from  Fort  Ontario.  Captain  Thomas  Norris,  of  the  Seven- 
teenth regiment,  commanded  here.  Many  civilities  received 
from  him  and  the  officers  of  the  regiment. 

26th.  Rode  to  Fort  Schlosser,  about  fifteen  miles  from 
Niagara,  which  is  situated  on  Niagara  River,  about  two 
miles  above  the  famous  Falls. 

Mr.  Pfister,  a  German  half-pay  lieutenant  of  the  Royal 
Americans,  lives  at  Fort  Schlosser.  He  has  made  a  contract 
with  General  Gage,  commander-in-chief,  to  carry  all  stores, 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  343 

batteaux,  etc.,  belonging  to  the  army,  in  wagons  over  land, 
about  seven  miles,  the  Falls  of  Niagara  making  the  river 
of  that  name  so  rapid  both  above  and  below  them,  that  it  is 
absolutely  necessary  for  every  thing  going  towards  Lake 
Erie,  to  be  carried  that  distance  by  land.  Every  batteau, 
besides  those  belonging  to  the  army,  pays  him  £10,  New- 
York  currency,  and  upwards,  according  to  their  size. 

Batteaux  and  all  heavy  baggage  are  raised  to  the  top 
of  an  high  hill  on  the  river,  by  means  of  a  capstan. 

From  Fort  Schlosser  we  went  to  see  the  Falls,  which 
are  two  amazing  cataracts,  divided  by  an  island  in  the 
river.  We  were  inclined  to  go  down  a  steep  rock  and  view 
the  Falls  from  the  bottom,  but  having  no  rope  with  us  to 
fasten  to  a  tree  above,  the  dangerous  appearance  of  the 
precipice  deterred  us. 

A  few  days  after,  we  crossed  the  river  from  Niagara 
Fort  and  rode  to  the  Falls,  which  appeared  much  higher 
and  more  beautiful  than  from  the  opposite  side. 

We  had  got  a  rope,  and  resolved  by  its  assistance  to  go 
to  the  bottom  of  the  Falls ;  but  some  accident  happening  to 
the  horse  of  the  man  who  had  charge  of  the  rope,  he  was 
obliged  to  stop  on  the  road,  and  endeavoring  to  overtake 
us,  he  lost  his  way ;  so  we  should  have  been  a  second  time 
disappointed  of  the  pleasure  of  seeing  the  Falls  from  the 
bottom  had  we  not  resolved  to  go  down  at  all  events,  with- 
out a  rope.  Before  this  resolution  could  be  executed,  it  was 
necessary  to  find  out  a  proper  place  from  which  we  might 
make  an  attempt  with  some  probability  of  success. 

This  was  no  easy  matter;  and  we  examined  the  banks 
of  the  river  for  at  least  an  hour  and  a  half  before  any  such 
place  could  be  found.  Nothing  but  the  bare  face  of  a  rock 
was  to  be  seen.  At  last  an  opening  appeared  between  some 
trees  and  bushes,  which,  though  dangerous  to  go  down, 
seemed  the  most  likely  place  for  our  purpose  of  any  we 
had  seen.  A  council  was  now  held,  whether  an  attempt 
should  be  made  there.  We  all  seemed  pretty  well  agreed, 
that  if  any  one  of  us  would  jump  down  a  smooth  perpen- 
dicular rock,  about  twenty  feet  in  height,  when  he  got  to 


344  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

the  bottom  it  was  likely  he  might  find  a  place  where  we 
might  descend  lower  with  ease.  Nothing  was  now  wanting 
but  a  mouse  hardy  enough  to  tie  the  bell  about  the  cat's 
neck.  At  last  one  of  the  company,  after  having  made  one 
or  two  fruitless  attempts,  fixed  a  forked  pole  to  the  branch 
of  a  tree  that  hung  over  the  rock,  and  by  that  means  let 
himself  down  to  the  bottom.  The  fork  of  the  pole  broke 
as  he  was  going  down,  and  I  think  it  is  a  wonder  he  did 
not  break  his  neck. 

After  looking  about  him  some  time,  he  found  some 
notched  logs,  not  twenty  yards  from  the  place  where  he  had 
risked  breaking  his  bones,  that  served  as  a  ladder,  by  which 
the  whole  company  went  down  easily  to  the  place  where 
he  was. 

We  then  scrambled  down,  holding  by  stumps  and  roots, 
and  tufts  of  grass,  to  the  bottom,  and  a  terrible  piece  of 
work  we  had  before  we  got  there.  Our  labor,  however, 
was  in  a  great  measure  recompensed  by  a  sight  of  the  Falls, 
which  appear  much  higher  and  much  more  beautiful  than 
from  above,  on  either  side.  We  went  so  near,  as  to  be  wet 
through  with  the  spray.  After  getting  to  the  bottom  of  the 
precipice  our  anxiety  to  be  near  the  Falls  was  so  great,  that 
we  forgot  to  mark  the  place  where  we  came  down;  and 
so,  after  our  curiosity  was  satisfied  with  looking,  we  were 
obliged  to  wander  up  and  down  for  three  hours,  and 
scramble  over  many  dangerous  places,  before  we  could  find 
our  way.  The  night  approaching,  gave  us  a  comfortable 
prospect  of  staying  there  till  morning;  and  the  appearance 
of  wolves'  tracks  in  many  places  added  much  to  our  pleas- 
ant situation.  We  were  informed  that  those  animals  fre- 
quently travelled  about  that  place,  in  companies  of  about 
twenty  or  thirty  at  a  time,  and  were  so  fierce  as  to  attack 
men  even  in  the  middle  of  the  day.  As  we  had  nothing 
with  us  to  defend  ourselves,  nor  flint  and  steel  to  make  a 
fire,  I  think  the  odds  were  about  five  to  four  that  no  part 
of  us  except  our  bones  would  have  ever  got  to  the  top  of 
the  hill,  undigested,  if  we  had  not  luckily  found  our  way. 
Upon  the  whole,  our  jaunt  was  difficult  and  dangerous, 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  345 

and  although  a  sight  of  the  Falls  from  below  affords  great 
pleasure,  yet  it  is  not  adequate  to  the  trouble  and  hazard 
necessary  to  the  obtaining  it. 

The  Falls  of  Niagara  have  been  measured  several  times 
by  a  line,  let  down  from  a  rock  near  the  top  of  the  Falls. 
From  the  best  accounts  I  could  get,  I  think  they  are  about 
one  hundred  and  forty  feet  perpendicular.  They  are  ex- 
tremely grand,  and  are  well  worth  seeing. 

During  our  stay  in  this  part  of  the  world,  we  went  to 
Fort  Erie,  which  is  situated  on  the  mouth  of  the  Lake  of 
that  name.  Lake  Erie  is  about  three  hundred  miles  long 
and  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  broad. 

At  the  north-west  corner  of  Lake  Erie  is  Detroit  on  the 
Straits  between  that  Lake  and  Lake  Huron ;  eighteen  miles 
up  these  Straits  is  Fort  Pontchartrain. 

Niagara  seems  to  be  the  key  of  all  our  northern  posses- 
sions in  America;  yet  so  fond  are  the  Ministry  of  the 
appearance  of  economy  that  this  Fort,  for  want  of  a  trifling 
annual  expense,  is  suffered  to  go  to  ruin.  The  works  are 
built  of  turf;  they  are  very  extensive  and  very  much  out 
of  repair.  The  commanding  officer  assured  me,  that  if  the 
Fort  was  attacked  it  must  fall,  as  he  did  not  think  it 
tenable.  There  is  indeed  in  the  Fort  a  large  stone  house, 
ninety  by  forty-five  feet,  which  is  proof  against  any  Indian 
attacks,  even  though  they  were  in  possession  of  the  Fort, 
yet  if  there  were  three  or  four  Frenchmen,  with  these  In- 
dians, who  could  show  them  the  use  of  the  cannon  in  the 
Fort,  the  house  would  soon  be  levelled  to  the  ground.  This 
large  house  was  built  by  the  French,  under  the  pretence  of 
.  its  being  a  trading-house,  the  Indians  refusing  then  to  per- 
mit them  to  build  a  fort.  Soon  after  the  house  was  built, 
they  raised  a  stockade  about  it,  and  by  degrees  constructed 
the  regular  fortification,  which  is  now  seen  here. 

The  officers'  fresh  provisions  were  entirely  out,  and  they 
had  not  a  drop  of  wine;  we  luckily  had  a  little  which  we 
brought  up  with  us. 

When  we  first  arrived  we  were  told  that  the  schooner 
that  carries  provisions  between  Niagara  and  Oswegachy, 


346  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

would  certainly  arrive  in  two  or  three  days;  we  waited 
with  the  utmost  expectation  for  her,  but  she  did  not  appear 
until  Saturday,  i6th  August,  when  to  our  great  joy  she 
arrived. 

The  diary  continues  with  an  account  of  the  return 
journey,  down  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Quebec,  back  to 
Montreal,  thence  through  Lake  Champlain  to  Albany,  and 
by  river  sloop  to  New  York. 

A  few  peculiarities  in  the  preceding  journal  may  be 
noted.  "Harkimer"  is  a  much-used  early  form  for  the 
family  name  now  usually  written  "Herkimer."  "Pondiach" 
is  a  permissible  spelling  for  "Pontiac";  but  "Fort  Brew- 
ington"  is  an  error  for  "Fort  Brewerton."  Other  minor 
slips  do  not  call  for  correction. 


JONATHAN  CARVER,  1766. 

Jonathan  Carver  passed  this  way  in  1766  and  observed 
"those  remarkable  Falls  which  are  esteemed  one  of  the  most 
extraordinary  productions  of  nature  at  present  known"! 
But,  he  adds,  "As  these  have  been  visited  by  so  many  trav- 
elers, and  so  frequently  described,  I  shall  omit  giving  a 
particular  description  of  them."  If  that  had  to  be  said  in 
1766,  what  would  Carver  think  of  the  cataracts  of  descrip- 
tion which  have  been  poured  out  in  the  last  century  and 
a  half? 


ST.  JOHN  DE  CREVECOEUR,  1785. 

To  the  researches  of  Mr.  O.  H.  Marshall  we  are  indebted 
for  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  early  narratives  of 
travel  in  the  Niagara  region.  It  is  a  letter  written  in  1785 
by  Hector  St.  John  de  Crevecoeur  to  his  young  son 
Alexander,  in  France.  A  copy  of  it,  and  of  an  accompany- 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY    VISITORS.  347 

ing  map,  were  given  to  Mr.  Marshall,  some  thirty  odd  years 
ago,  by  a  grandson  of  the  writer,  Count  Robert  de  Creve- 
coeur,  at  that  time  the  head  of  the  family  in  France.  Mr. 
Marshall  sent  a  translation  of  the  document,  with  the  map, 
to  the  Magazine  of  American  History,  in  which  they  were 
printed,  October,  1878.  I  am  not  aware  of  any  other  publi- 
cation of  this  very  interesting  and  useful  narrative,  which 
amply  merits  inclusion  in  the  present  collection. 

Hector  St.  John  de  Crevecoeur,  usually  called,  it  appears, 
at  least  during  his  American  sojourn,  Mr.  St.  John,  was 
born,  of  a  distinguished  French  family,  at  Caen  in  Nor- 
mandy in  1731.  He  was  educated  in  England  and  in  1754 
came  to  America,  where  he  married,  and  for  some  years 
was  settled  as  an  agriculturist.  I  quote  from  a  sketch  of 
him  by  Mr.  Marshall : 

"In  1780  he  was  arrested  by  the  British  as  a  spy  and 
imprisoned  for  three  months.  Released  through  the  media- 
tion of  a  friend  who  became  security  for  his  neutrality,  he 
returned  to  his  paternal  home  in  Normandy.  On  the  ratifi- 
cation of  peace  in  1782  between  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain,  he  was  appointed  French  Consul-General  for 
New  York,  New  Jersey  and  Connecticut.  On  his  arrival  at 
New  York  he  found  his  property  burnt,  his  wife  dead  and 
his  children  in  the  hands  of  a  stranger.  A  Mr.  Fellows  of 
Boston,  having  learned  that  Mr.  St.  John  had  befriended 
some  American  sailors  wrecked  on  the  coast  of  Normandy, 
went  over  three  hundred  miles  to  the  relief  of  his  children 
and  took  charge  of  them  in  their  father's  absence. 

"Mr.  St.  John  remained  in  America  until  1793,  during 
which  time  he  traded  extensively  among  the  western 
Indians.  He  visited  an  Onondaga  council  in  1789,  where 
he  was  received  as  an  adopted  son  of  the  Oneidas  under 
the  name  of  Kayo.  He  was  also  present  at  an  Indian  treaty 
held  at  Fort  Stanwix,  now  Rome.  He  had  a  daughter  who 
was  married  to  an  attache  of  the  Consular  office  by  the 
name  of  Otto,  who  rose  to  high  diplomatic  rank  in  the 


348  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY    VISITORS. 

French  service,  even  to  the  embassy  to  England  for  a  short 
time." 

Crevecoeur  was  the  author  of  two  curious  and  interesting 
works.  One,  "Letters  from  an  American  Farmer,"  was 
written  and  first  published  in  English.  There  are  London 
editions  of  1782  and  1783.  The  author  subsequently 
enlarged  it  and  translated  it  into  French,  Paris  editions 
appearing  in  1784  and  1787.  "In  it,"  writes  Mr.  Marshall, 
"he  paints  in  glowing  colors  the  attractions  of  rural  life  in 
America.  His  graphic  descriptions  drew  many  an  emi- 
grant from  Europe  to  our  shores,  to  find  disappointment  in 
the  hardships  and  privations  of  a  new  country.  General 
Washington  briefly  characterizes  the  book  as  'a  work, 
though  founded  in  fact,  embellished  in  some  instances  with 
rather  too  flattering  circumstances'." 

His  other  work,  written  in  French,  is  entitled  "Voyage 
dans  la  Haute  Pensylvanie,  et  dans  I'Etat  de  New  York." 
It  was  published,  three  volumes,  in  Paris,  1801.  It  purports 
to  have  been  translated  from  an  English  manuscript, 
rescued  from  an  American  vessel  wrecked  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Elbe.  This  gave  the  author  an  excuse  for  disconnected 
writing,  under  pretense  that  portions  of  the  original  manu- 
script were  lost.  He  describes  his  travels  in  America  and 
his  intercourse  with  the  Indians.  Many  pages  are  devoted 
to  the  Niagara  region,  but  they  are  so  embellished  with 
incidents  apparently  the  invention  of  the  author,  that  one 
can  only  regard  them  as  fiction,  rather  than  as  trustworthy 
history.  The  letter  to  his  son,  however,  written  after  his 
excursion  to  Niagara  in  July,  1785,  is  indubitably  trust- 
worthy, and  his  map  is  unequaled,  in  that  period,  for 
accuracy  and  useful  data. 

Crevecoeur  corresponded  with  Washington  and  with 
Franklin.  In  1787  he  accompanied  the  latter  to  Lancaster, 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  349 

Pa.,  when  Franklin  laid  the  corner-stone  of  the  college  that 
bears  his  name.  He  spent  his  last  years  in  France,  dying  at 
Sarcelles,  near  Paris,  in  1813,  aged  82  years. 

In  the  account  that  follows,  there  are  numerous  refer- 
ences, by  letters,  to  places  on  the  map,  marked  to  cor- 
respond. "The  gentleman  of  the  name  of  Hambleton"  was 
probably  Robert  Hamilton,  the  founder  of  Queenston, 
which  is  the  "Landing"  or  "landing  place"  of  Crevecoeur's 
letter.  The  allusion  to  "surrounding  mountains"  is  singular. 
Early  travelers  called  the  Lewiston  heights  "mountains," 
but  it  was  an  oddly  perverse  memory  which  made  mountains 
visible  at  the  Falls. 

Having  no  access  to  the  original  manuscript,  I  have  had 
to  follow  Mr.  Marshall's  translation,  which  has  some 
obvious  slips,  as  for  instance  where  two  falls,  each  a  quarter 
of  a  mile,  are  said  to  make  in  all  a  mile ;  probably  the  first- 
mentioned  should  read  "three  quarters."  Further  explana- 
tion will  be  found  in  connection  with  the  map,  at  the  end 
of  the  letter. 

It  was  in  the  month  of  July,  1785,  my  friend  Mr.  Hunter 
and  I  arrived  at  the  Fort  of  Niagara,  after  a  long  and 
painful  voyage  up  the  river  St.  Laurence,  the  particulars  of 
which  being  foreign  to  my  present  subject,  I  will  therefore 
proceed  to  the  immediate  description  of  the  wonderful 
Cataract  of  Niagara,  which  of  its  kind,  is  the  greatest 
phenomenon  in  nature. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  July  the  I2th,  a  gentleman  of 
the  name  of  Hambleton  to  whom  we  had  been  introduced, 
called  upon  us  with  horses  to  accompany  him  to  Fort 
Slausser,  "A,"  near  which  place  the  falls  are  situated.  Our 
route  was  upon  the  banks  of  the  river  which  takes  its  name 
from  the  Cataract  and  is  generally  one  quarter  to  one  half 
a  mile  wide,  the  current  extremely  rapid,  but  being  deep 
water  for  about  9  miles,  is  navigable  with  a  strong  north- 


350  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY   VISITORS. 

erly  wind  to  "B."  Here  the  rapids  begin  and  whose  fury 
and  violence  increases  for  9  miles  more,  which  bring  you 
to  the  head  of  the  river  "C." 

From  the  landing  place,  as  it  is  called  (because  the  boats 
discharge  their  loading)  we  found  the  banks  became  more 
steep,  and  we  continued  to  ascend  them  until  we  arrived  at 
Mr.  Stedman's  house  "D"  who  forms  this  place  of  Govern- 
ment and  has  the  exclusive  right  of  transporting  the  stores 
and  merchandise  from  Lake  Ontario  to  Lake  Erie.  The 
men  were  received  by  the  gentleman  with  the  greatest  hos- 
pitality, who  amused  us  for  the  remaining  part  of  the  day 
with  various  details  of  the  incidents  which  had  occurred 
during  his  residence  here.  Having  concerted  every  thing 
for  our  Expedition  to  the  Falls,  we  retired  to  our  rooms. 

July  Jj.  We  arose  before  the  Sun,  and  in  company  with 
several  gentlemen  of  the  Army,  began  our  walk  to  the  river 
Erie,  which  is  here  some  miles  over  and  interspersed  with  a 
number  of  beautiful  small  islands,  covered  with  forest  trees. 

We  pursued  the  course  of  the  river  for  nearly  two  miles, 
our  Expectations  were  kept  awake  by  the  distant  sound  of 
the  Fall,  which  became  louder  as  we  approached  it.  About 
a  mile  before  you  arrive  at  the  Cataract,  "E,"  the  rapids 
commence,  and  which  of  themselves,  in  any  other  part  of 
the  world  would  be  thought  superior  to  anything  of  the 
kind.  You  distinguish  them  best  from  a  sawmill,  "F," 
which  projects  from  the  shore.  These  rapids  are  formed 
by  a  continuous  chain  of  craggy  rocks  of  various  heights 
and  the  descent  below  the  bed  of  the  river  being  great,  the 
vast  body  of  water  which  comes  from  the  upper  lakes  and 
which  are  discharged  by  this  river,  force  themselves  over 
these  rocks,  with  inconceivable  fury  and  rapidity,  producing 
billows  of  white  foam  which  for  magnitude,  can  only  find 
a  companion  in  the  agitation  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  in  a 
gale  of  wind. 

We  continued  our  route  through  a  wood  until  we  came 
in  view  of  this  tremendous  Cataract ;  but  where  shall  I  find 
language  to  convey  even  an  idea  of  the  grandeur  of  the 
Scene?  When  the  period  of  astonishment  was  over,  and 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  351 

the  mind  at  liberty  to  investigate  each  part  of  these  varied 
beauties,  we  found  a  very  ample  field  for  observation. 

The  most  sublime  and  elevated  object  was  a  column  of 
spray  or  vapor,  that  rises  from  the  basin  "C"  into  which 
the  waters  are  hurled,  the  weight  and  elasticity  of  which 
make  it  rebound  at  least  one  half  the  height  of  the  fall. 
The  upper  particles  being  light  form  into  a  thin  vapor, 
which  appears  like  a  cloud.  The  weather  was  remarkably 
serene,  not  a  breath  of  air  nor  a  cloud  to  be  seen.  The  sun 
rose  with  peculiar  lustre,  and  as  the  night  clouds  were  dis- 
sipated then  succeeded  a  clear  Azure  sky.  The  rays  of  the 
sun  gilded  the  tops  of  the  surrounding  mountains,  and  at 
length,  in  oblique  angles,  struck  the  cloud  I  have  mentioned. 
It  was  instantly  vivified  by  the  colors  of  the  rainbow,  three 
of  which  were  visible  at  once.  One  as  it  were  under  our 
feet  upon  the  surface  of  the  basin  below,  was  at  180  feet. 
The  splendor  of  those  objects  was  truly  beautiful,  and 
lasted  some  time  until  the  sun  rising  in  the  horizon,  from 
its  attracting  influence,  left  only  a  light  cloud  which  upon 
many  occasions  has  been  seen  at  the  distance  of  50  to  60 
miles. 

Our  attention  was  now  taken  up  with  the  general  ap- 
pearance and  shape  of  the  Cataract,  which,  from  the  situa- 
tion we  were  in,  appeared  an  irregular  curve.  We  were 
standing  upon  a  rising  ground  on  the  Eastern  Shore,  and 
within  a  few  yards  of  the  lesser  fall,  for  it  is  so  distin- 
guished from  another  which  is  separated  from  this  by  an 
island,  and  which  conceals  a  great  part  of  the  large  fall, 
and  can  only  be  seen  to  advantage  on  the  opposite  side. 

I  shall  here  confine  myself  to  the  small  fall,  which  is 
near  one  quarter  of  a  mile  wide ;  this  vast  body  of  water  all 
in  a  foam,  is  precipitated  150  feet  perpendicular,  with  a 
noise  like  thunder.  I  shall  reserve  the  most  minute  and 
descriptive  part  until  I  arrive  on  the  Western  Shore,  but 
before  I  leave  this,  I  must  mention  the  perilous  and  dan- 
gerous descent  we  made.  We  had  provided  a  strong  rope 
which  we  attached  to  the  trunk  of  a  large  tree  about  40  or 
50  yards  from  the  edge  of  the  little  fall  The  rocks  are 


362  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY   VISITORS. 

nearly  perpendicular,  from  the  fissures  of  which  grew  a 
number  of  shrubs  and  plants,  which  served  to  fix  our  feet 
upon  whilst  we  held  firm  by  our  hands  on  the  rope.  In 
this  manner  we  descended  nearly  150  feet,  not  without 
having  experienced  the  greatest  bodily  fatigue,  but  also 
some  fearful  apprehensions.  What  will  not  curiosity  stimu- 
late us  to  encounter,  for  certainly  there  was  more  danger 
than  pleasure  or  advantage. 

However  this  is  considered  as  a  part  of  a  traveler's 
duty,  and  being  come  so  far,  we  were  determined  not  to 
be  excelled  in  spirit  or  variety  of  attempt.  We  approached 
the  falling  waters  until  we  were  completely  wet.  We  rested 
ourselves  upon  a  rock  and  from  thence  we  could  see  these 
tumultuous  waters  which  seemed  to  threaten  us  with 
instant  death,  but  before  they  could  arrive  to  us,  they  were 
diverted  from  us  by  a  ledge  of  rocks  which  conveyed  them 
into  the  immense  vortex  below,  for  we  were  still  elevated 
above  the  bed  of  the  river.  We  had  now  to  return  by  the 
way  we  came,  which  we  effected  without  any  material  in- 
jury, except  some  bruises  which  could  not  be  avoided.  We 
had  been  several  hours  on  this  Expedition,  and  returned  to 
Mr.  Stedman's  where  we  ate  our  breakfast  with  keen 
appetites,  which  were  whetted  by  the  feast  of  mental  grati- 
fication we  had  just  been  enjoying. 

We  had  the  pleasure  of  an  introduction  to  Capt.  Jones, 
commanding  officer  of  this  Post,  whose  obliging  communi- 
cations and  very  polite  attention,  I  shall  ever  recollect  with 
gratitude.  We  were  desirous  of  crossing  the  river  Erie  to 
the  opposite  shore,  where  we  might  see  the  Cataract  in  the 
best  situation.  The  general  route  is  to  return  to  the  landing 
place  upon  the  river  Niagara  "B,"  pass  the  river  and  pro- 
ceed by  a  road  through  the  thick  woods  until  you  arrive  at 
the  falls.  We  were  saved  this  troublesome  route  by  Mr. 
Jones  offering  us  one  of  the  Military  Batteaux,  with  six 
soldiers,  to  put  us  and  our  horses  over.  After  expressing 
our  obligation  to  him  for  his  convenient  offer,  which  we 
accepted,  we  took  our  leaves  of  the  friends  we  had  met 
with.  The  river  here  is  about  three  miles  wide,  the  waters 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  353 

very  deep,  which  conceals  in  some  measure  the  rapidity  of 
the  current,  which  is  so  great  that  we  were  obliged  to  pole 
up  the  river  close  in  shore  for  near  two  miles.  Our  men 
then  took  to  their  oars  and  with  incredible  labor  arrived  at 
the  other  side  and  landed  in  Chippeway  Creek  "I."  This 
passage  is  extremely  awful,  for  many  accidents  have  hap- 
pened from  the  breaking  of  an  oar  and  the  current  running 
at  the  rate  of  six  miles  an  hour,  it  requires  great  exertion 
to  prevent  being  hurried  along  with  it;  and  this  is  the 
reason  they  ascend  the  river  so  high,  for  Chippewa  Creek 
is  even  lower  down  than  Fort  Slausser.  The  terror  is 
increased  by  a  full  view  of  the  rapids  I  have  described,  and 
the  spray  and  cloud  within  two  or  three  miles.  An  accident 
such  as  I  have  mentioned  would  expose  persons  to  be  driven 
by  the  current  into  the  rapids,  where  you  must  inevitably 
perish. 

We  however  had  this  only  in  idea,  for  we  were  safely 
landed  upon  a  beautiful  plantation  occupied  by  Mr.  Birch, 
a  gentleman  from  London,  but  who  from  a  long  residence 
in  the  State  of  New  York  and  attached  to  the  British 
Government,  came  under  the  description  of  a  Loyalist.  He 
had  the  lands  granted  him  which  now  seem  to  repay  his 
labors  and  difficulties,  with  the  greatest  abundance  of  every 
thing  useful;  we  were  entertained  by  him  with  great  hos- 
pitality and  we  found  him  a  very  sensible,  well  informed 
character,  his  conversation  pleasing  and  instructive,  and  his 
communications  very  novel,  which  some  day  I  may  take  an 
opportunity  of  imparting.  This  gentleman  directed  us  how 
to  proceed  in  a  choice  of  situation  and  objects,  and  we 
derived  considerable  advantage  from  it.  We  pursued  our 
route  upon  some  elevated  ground  covered  with  large  forest 
trees,  through  which  we  now  and  then  caught  a  glimpse  of 
the  river.  One  station  we  took  gave  us  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  views  I  had  ever  seen.  We  arrived  at  the  house 
of  Mr.  Ellsworth,  a  Loyalist,  "K,"  who  is  settled  upon  a 
fine  plot  of  land  which  is  cultivated  to  the  very  edge  of  the 
Falls  "L,"  and  which  with  the  river  and  extensive  prospect 
is  plainly  seen  and  commanded  from  his  house.  We  in- 


364  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

duced  him  to  act  as  a  guide,  and  having  put  ourselves  under 
his  direction,  he  conducted  us  to  a  shelve  of  rocks  which 
are  upon  a  level  of  the  river  Erie,  "M."  Upon  one  of  those 
we  took  our  stand,  and  how  shall  I  attempt  to  describe  the 
scene  before  me!  The  bare  recollection  seems  to  deny  my 
pen  expression  of  the  influence  of  the  mind;  in  vain  the 
ideas  form  and  seek  expression.  They  multiply  upon  each 
other  so  quick  that  even  now  I  require  reflection  to  arrange 
them. 

The  view  of  this  cataract  from  the  Eastern  shore  seems 
only  preparative  for  that  on  the  west  side,  where  we  now 
stood.  I  shall  begin  with  observing,  that  you  command 
here  every  drop  of  water,  since  there  is  not  a  curve  or 
indented  line  but  may  be  seen.  We  were  within  30  or  40 
yards  of  the  great  fall,  the  waters  of  which  force  them- 
selves over  these  great  rocks,  and  occasionally  two  small 
falls,  the  waters  of  which  washed  our  feet.  The  great  fall 
is  in  the  shape  of  a  horse-shoe,  and  is  about  a  quarter 
mile  broad,  its  descent  at  least  175  feet.  The  vast  bodies 
of  water  which  are  discharged  here,  are  'more  than  the 
ingenuity  of  man  can  ascertain.  To  form  a  competent  idea, 
we  must  trace  them  to  their  sources,  which  are  derived 
from  those  great  inland  seas  which  are  distinguished  as 
lakes  and  which  in  order  of  magnitude  are : 

The  Lake  of  the  Woods  which  is  of  no  fixed  size. 

The  two  chains  of  Lakes,  which  are  small. 

Lake  Superior   is  350  miles  long,  250  miles  broad. 

Lake  Michigan  "  290      "        "       60      " 

Lake  Huron       "  280      "        "     180      " 

Lake  Erie  "  330      "        "      75      " 

Lake  Ontario     "  190      "        "       70      " 

These  lakes  have  all  a  communication  with  each  other, 
and  their  collected  waters,  except  Lake  Ontario,  are  precipi- 
tated over  the  falls  of  Niagara  with  a  force  and  weight 
inconceivably  great.  It  rises  again  at  least  80  feet  and 
produces  a  spray,  which  when  the  wind  blows  is  like  a 
shower  of  rain  and  is  felt  at  some  100  yards  distance.  The 
vapor  and  cloud  are  similar  to  what  we  observed  on  the 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY    VISITORS.  355 

East  side,  only  here  we  observed  four  distinct  rainbows  at 
once. 

The  waters  in  the  center  of  the  great  fall  appear  of  a 
fine  green  color.  On  each  side  of  the  crescent  the  waters 
are  in  a  white  foam,  the  contrast  of  which  has  a  very 
beautiful  effect. 

At  the  extremity  of  the  crescent  a  right  line  runs  for  100 
yards  over  which  the  water  flows.  You  then  come  to  an 
island  covered  with  trees  and  shrubs,  whose  foliage  and 
situation  have  a  very  happy  effect  amidst  the  turbulent 
scene  around.  The  breadth  of  it  may  be  near  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  when  the  lesser  fall  continues  for  about  a  quarter 
more,  making  in  all  a  mile.  The  appearance  of  the  whole 
is  level,  and  the  island  enables  you  to  see  the  ledge  of  rocks 
which  form  the  base  over  which  it  runs,  being  like  a  wall, 
the  sides  of  which  are  so  smooth  that  you  might  think  it 
proceeded  from  the  chisel  rather  than  from  the  hand  of 
nature.  The  waters  fall  as  it  were  into  a  large  basin,  which 
from  the  fermentation  of  the  water  may  be  justly  com- 
pared to  an  immense  caldron  of  boiling  water,  every  part 
of  which  is  only  increased  by  the  magnitude  of  the  object. 
This  immense  basin  appears  land-locked  from  this  station 
and  the  turn  of  the  river  is  so  quick  and  the  body  of  the 
water  so  great,  seeking  a  bent  [vent?],  that  it  causes  an 
amazing  whirlpool,  which  would  swallow  up  the  largest 
vessels.  The  basin  is  surrounded,  except  the  outlet,  by 
high  steep  craggy  rocks,  covered  with  trees  of  various 
sorts,  and  which  are  from  150  to  200  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  water.  Objects  below  are  very  minute.  The  rock 
we  were  upon,  bends  over  at  least  20  or  30  feet,  and  to  look 
down  makes  you  giddy,  particularly  from  the  agitation  of 
your  feelings. 

Our  attention  had  been  so  much  taken  up  with  the 
cataract,  that  we  could  think  and  see  nothing  else  for  some 
time,  but  when  we  raised  our  eyes  to  make  a  more  general 
survey,  I  was  at  once  transported  and  astonished  with  the 
variety  of  natural  scenery  and  beauty,  that  had  been  over- 
looked in  the  contemplation  of  a  more  sublime  and  uncom- 


356  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

mon  object  than  is  to  be  found  in  any  other  part  of  the 
world;  we  were  relieved  from  this  by  one  of  the  most 
varied  prospects  I  had  ever  beheld.  First  you  see  the 
rapids  sweeping  with  inconceivable  force  and  in  different 
courses  round  the  several  islands  which  are  interspersed 
in  the  river,  which  from  its  breadth  and  great  extent 
appears  like  a  lake.  At  some  miles  distant  appears,  on  the 
opposite  shore,  Fort  Slausser,  Mr.  Stedman's  house  and  his 
plantations,  and  if  you  pursue  the  scenery  around,  you  are 
lost  in  the  immeasurable  extent.  The  back  grounds  at  a  great 
distance  are  terminated  by  a  chain  of  high  mountains,  which 
lose  themselves  in  the  clouds  and  are  bounded  by  the 
horizon. 

Having  dwelt  with  pleasure  and  delight  upon  the  objects 
before  us,  which  my  eyes  run  over  a  thousand  times  and 
with  which  the  mind  could  never  be  fatigued,  we  were 
at  length  admonished  by  our  conductor  that  we  had  no 
time  to  spare,  if  we  meant  to  complete  our  tour,  and  satisfy 
our  curiosity.  We  followed  him  upon  the  bank  or  ledge  of 
rocks  for  a  short  mile,  in  which  walk  we  had  many  striking 
views  of  the  falls,  altering  their  appearance  as  we  saw 
them  from  projecting  points.  We  arrived  at  a  break  in 
the  rock,  "N,"  which  serves  as  the  only  admittance  or  path 
to  descend  to  the  river.  This  we  pursued  for  some  distance 
down  to  a  very  steep  bank,  and  were  obliged  to  hold  by  the 
roots  of  trees  and  shrubs  that  surrounded  us.  We  came 
to  a  large  tree  which  stands  alone,  "O,"  and  upon  the  back 
of  which  were  carved  a  number  of  names  of  different  per- 
sons who  had  been  here.  Being  fatigued  we  rested  here 
some  little  time,  and  amused  ourselves  by  adding  ours  to 
the  number.  We  now  continued  our  route  until  we  came 
to  a  large  rock  the  sides  of  which  are  perpendicular  and 
near  30  feet  high.  We  were  obliged  to  make  use  of  an 
Indian  ladder,  which  is  simply  two  straight  trees  in  which, 
with  their  tomahawks  or  hatchets  they  cut  notches  at  12 
or  15  inches  from  each  other.  In  these  notches  you  put 
your  feet  and  by  this  means  we  got  to  the  bottom.  We 
now  found  our  route  more  difficult,  being  obliged  to  change 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  357 

our  course  in  different  directions,  according  as  we  thought 
it  could  accelerate  our  passage;  sometimes  we  crept  on  all 
fours  for  many  yards  together,  passing  through  holes  in 
the  rocks,  which  would  scarce  admit  our  bodies.  At  other 
times  we  absolutely  passed  under  the  roots  of  trees  which 
had  been  hollowed  by  the  savages  who  have  made  this 
Indian  path  in  order  to  amuse  themselves  with  fishing, 
which  is  a  very  favorite  amusement.  At  some  seasons 
fishes  are  found  here  in  great  plenty,  and  then  many  hun- 
dred savages  frequent  it. 

We  had  now  been  near  an  hour  in  descending  and  but  a 
very  small  part  of  our  difficulty  overcome.  We  were 
arrived  upon  a  broken  shelve  of  rocks  which  had  fallen 
from  above  in  the  spring  of  the  year  when  the  ice  began  to 
thaw,  the  rocks  being  loosened.  It  is  from  the  expansion 
of  the  fissures  which  have  snow  and  water  in  them  during 
the  winter,  and  melting  in  the  spring  of  the  year,  that  this 
effect  is  produced.  There  have  been  instances  of  persons 
losing  their  lives  or  being  lamed  from  the  falling  of  these 
pieces,  some  of  which  would  weigh  many  tons.  At  this 
period  of  the  year  there  was  little  danger.  We  were  nearly 
a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  foot  of  the  cataract,  and  the 
whole  way  back  was  strewed  with  these  broken  pieces  of 
stone,  and  owing  to  the  great  declivity  to  the  river  we  were 
in  fear  of  falling  in,  as  the  stones  sometimes  gave  away, 
and  the  only  way  to  save  ourselves  was  by  lying  down,  by 
which  we  frequently  were  hurt.  The  pending  rocks  above 
us  added  much  to  the  horrors  of  our  situation,  for  knowing 
those  under  our  feet  had  fallen  at  different  periods,  we 
could  not  divest  ourselves  of  apprehension.  However  we 
encouraged  each  other  with  the  idea  of  surmounting  the 
same  difficulties  which  others  had  done  before  us.  We 
came  at  last  to  the  two  small  falls  which  I  have  mentioned 
before.  Being  excessively  fatigued  and  warm  we  sat 
down  some  time  to  refresh  ourselves,  and  prepare  for  ad- 
vancing. Here  we  undressed  and  in  our  boots  and  trousers 
began  the  most  hazardous  expedition  I  was  ever  engaged  in. 

After  climbing  over  several  very  high  and  craggy  rocks, 


358  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY    VISITORS. 

we  came  to  the  first  of  the  small  falls,  under  which  we 
passed  without  much  inconvenience,  though  the  pressure  of 
the  water  was  so  great  from  the  height  it  fell,  that  I  can 
only  compare  it  to  a  violent  storm  of  hail,  but  when  we 
came  to  the  second  through  which  our  guide  with  difficulty 
passed,  I  felt  no  inclination  to  proceed.  Our  guide  returned 
to  encourage  us,  and  upon  my  hands  and  feet  I  followed 
him,  expecting  each  moment  to  sink  under  the  weight  of 
water,  but  I  began  to  find  it  less  disagreeable  as  I  advanced, 
and  I  was  soon  relieved  by  enjoying  the  open  air,  which 
now  I  breathed  with  pleasing  avidity.  Here  we  reposed  a 
little.  My  friend  Hunter  was  entirely  spent ;  I  repented  his 
coming,  for  fear  of  some  accident,  and  indeed  had  endeav- 
ored to  dissuade  him  from  this  perilous  excursion,  but  he 
could  not  bear  being  left  behind. 

We  now  were  recovered  in  some  degree,  and  proceeded 
toward  the  great  fall,  and  here  I  may  say  with  propriety, 
that  the  most  awful  scene  was  now  before  me  that  we  had 
yet  seen.  Our  difficulties  and  dangers  as  well  as  our  grati- 
fications, had  been  progressive  and  this  was  the  height  of 
our  ambitious  pursuit.  I  have  before  remarked  that  the 
waters  run  over  the  shelve  of  rocks,  that  in  many  places 
pend  over  their  base.  The  great  force  with  which  they  are 
precipitated,  gives  them  an  horizontal  direction,  so  that  at 
the  bottom  where  we  stood,  it  left  an  opening  between  the 
water  and  rocks.  It  was  here  we  entered  by  slow  and  cau- 
tious steps.  It  soon  became  dark,  which  proves  the  immense 
body  of  water  there  must  be  betwixt  us  and  the  light,  for 
we  all  know  we  can  see  a  great  depth  in  the  river,  and 
here  I  should  imagine  the  light  would  assist  in  rendering 
it  more  transparent,  but  we  found  it  opaque  or  dark.  We 
had  proceeded  about  15  or  20  yards,  when  we  found  it  so 
very  sultry  that  we  might  be  said  to  be  in  a  fumigating 
bath.  We  hastened  out  of  this  dreary  place,  and  once  more 
congratulating  each  other  upon  our  safety,  and  in  seeing 
the  sun  whose  beams  seem  to  shine  with  peculiar  lustre, 
from  the  pleasure  and  gaiety  it  diffused  over  our  trembling 
senses.  I  found  here  ample  subject  for  reflection.  I  ad- 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  369 

mired  this  cataract  as  one  of  the  great  efforts  of  a  Provi- 
dence, showing  the  omnipotence  of  a  Supreme  Being,  for  it 
certainly  is  one  of  the  most  sublime  and  terrific  objects  in 
nature,  at  once  impressing  the  mind  with  reverence  and 
admiration.  It  has  often  been  matter  of  surprise  to  me 
that  men  do  not  pursue  the  study  of  nature  more.  Its 
works  are  possessed  with  every  requisite  to  gratify  the 
senses,  and  our  feelings  are  harmonized  into  placid  con- 
templation. Where  is  there  in  being  one  who  could  refuse 
his  cheerful  matin  praise  when  he  rises  from  his  pillow 
after  the  refreshing  slumbers  of  the  night  and  beholds  that 
grand  luminary,  the  sun,  vivifying  every  object;  there  is 
not  a  tree  or  a  shrub  but  seems  to  welcome  the  return  of 
day.  If  we  indulge  in  a  contemplative  walk,  what  an  im- 
mense variety  presents  itself  to  our  notice.  We  may  learn 
the  most  useful  lessons  of  moral  duties  from  every  sur- 
rounding object.  The  progressive  rise  of  every  plant  and 
flower,  teaches  us  the  gradation  of  man  from  infancy. 
Their  decay  informs  us  of  the  instability  of  human  nature, 
and  indicates  the  dissolution  of  time  and  the  whole  of  the 
animated  universe.  How  preferable  are  these  innocent 
contemplative  reflections,  to  the  hurry  and  bustle  of  a 
licentious  world,  where  our  sensibilities  are  alarmed  with 
the  sight  of  men  preying  upon  men,  and  degrading  the  finest 
and  noblest  works  of  God-man,  below  the  level  of  the  brute 
creation.  The  awful  majesty  and  craggy  appearance  of  the 
great  and  stupendous  works  which  are  on  both  sides  of 
the  river,  form  a  kind  of  impenetrable  barrier  for  many 
miles,  except  the  winding  path  by  which  we  descended, 
seemingly  made  by  the  hand  of  nature  to  admit  prying 
man  into  every  one  of  its  secrets. 

Here  also  is  to  be  found  a  Phenomenon  of  which  kind 
there  can  be  seen  no  other,  that  is  an  eternal  or  never 
ceasing  shower,  the  influence  of  which  is  felt  to  a  great 
distance.  I  mean  the  spray  of  the  clouds  which  is  occa- 
sioned by  the  concussion  of  the  water;  the  rainbows  are 
ever  visible  where  the  God  of  day,  bright  Phoebus,  makes 
his  daily  course  and  diffuses  his  genial  rays. 


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EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  361 


NOTES  ON  THE  MAP. 

The  map  is  here  reproduced  except  a  marginal  inscription  in 
French,  in  effect  as  follows :  "Plan  of  the  communication  between 
Lakes  Erie  and  Ontario,  towards  the  middle  of  which  is  found  the 
Fall  of  Niagara,  the  greatest  known,  as  much  for  its  height,  esti- 
mated to  be  160  feet,  as  for  the  immense  volume  of  the  waters  there 
precipitated.  Addressed  to  M.  Ally  [Alexander]  St.  John  by  his  affec- 
tionate father;  drawn  to  help  the  description  of  this  cataract  which 
he  sends  to  him." 

The  upper  river  is  here  called  "Erie" — sometimes  more  properly 
"Erie."  The  early  writers  more  often  called  it  the  St.  Lawrence. 
The  key  to  the  letters,  given  on  the  map  in  French,  is  as  follows : 

A.  Fort  Erie,  spot  surrounded  with  palisades,  in  which  are  built 

several  houses  for  the  reception  and  protection  of  goods. 
There  are  here  a  captain  and  company.  [This  was  Fort 
Schlosser.] 

B.  Wharf,  consisting  of  two  quays  and  three  large  storehouses, 

surrounded  by  palisades. 

C.  Foot  of  the  fall;   group  [of  rocks]  more  than  200  feet  in  diam- 

eter, where  the  water  churns  about  before  escaping. 

D.  House  of  Mr.  Stedman,  a  little  distance  from  the  river,  where 

we  slept  the  first  night. 

E.  Beginning  of  the  rapids  and  head  of  the  rocks. 

F.  Saw  mill  on  a  point,  belonging  to  Mr.  Stedman. 

G.  Site  whence  we  viewed  the  west  branch  of  the  fall,  estimated  to 

be  800  feet  wide,  and  from  which  we  descended  to  the  edge  of 
the  great  group. 

I.      Plantation  where  we  landed  after  crossing  the  river. 

K.     Plantation  belonging  to  Mr.  Elsworth,  who  served  us  as  guide. 

L.     West  branch  of  the  fall,  estimated  to  be  at  least  1700  feet  in 

width. 
M.    Isolated  rock  surrounded  with  water,  from  which  we  studied  the 

great  fall. 

N.    Place  where  we  descended  to  the  water's  edge. 
O.     Great  larch  tree  on  which  we  wrote  our  names. 
P.     Anchorage  for  vessels  which  come  from  Detroit  and  Mackinac, 

the  first  distant  [ . .  ]  miles  and  the  second  [ . .  ]  miles. 
S.     Isle  in  the  midst  which  divides  the  great  cataract  in  two,  900  feet 

wide  by  about  loco  to  3400  feet  long. 

[The  English  "Scale  of  ten  Miles"  on  the  map  was  probably  added 
by  Mr.  Marshall.] 


362  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY    VISITORS. 

I  found  here  a  kind  of  calcareous  earth,  which  is  called 
Surf  stone.  It  certainly  derives  its  formation  from  some 
hidden  cause  proceeding  from  the  agitation  of  the  waters 
which  imbibe  certain  cohesive  particles,  but  I  am  not  suffi- 
ciently acquainted  with  chemistry  to  analyze  its  peculiar 
properties. 

It  is  dissolvable  in  water  though  formed  by  it,  but  it 
acquires  its  solidity  by  being  thrown  upon  its  shores  and 
exposed  to  the  sun  and  air.  It  seems  to  have  many  of  the 
qualities  of  soap  but  less  greasy.  It  may  be  melted  by  heat, 
but  when  cold  becomes  a  solid  mass  again.  When  found  it 
has  the  appearance  of  Derbyshire  Spar  or  marble,  is  quite 
white  but  much  lighter.  I  saw  nothing  else  curious  here. 
There  are  great  numbers  of  snakes  amongst  the  rocks,  par- 
ticularly the  rattlesnake,  which  delights  in  these  retired  and 
gloomy  places.  We  found  an  Indian  of  the  Messasauga 
nation  fishing  at  the  mouth  of  the  Basin.  We  exchanged 
some  friendly  signs  and  took  our  leaves.  We  could  have 
wished  for  a  balloon  to  have  ascended  at  once,  but  we  were 
obliged  to  toil  the  same  way  back,  in  which  we  were  often 
constrained  to  repose  upon  the  ground.  We  at  length  ar- 
rived upon  the  summit,  and  who  can  speak  the  pleasure 
we  received  from  our  safe  return.  We  had  been  six  hours 
and  upwards  descending  and  ascending. 

Our  friend  Mr.  Hambleton  had  been  under  some  fears 
for  us  and  welcomed  us  back.  He  had  prepared  us  a 
homely  but  wholesome  repast  at  Ellsworth's  house,  which 
we  ate  voraciously.  The  night  was  advancing  and  we 
wished  to  return  to  Niagara  that  evening.  We  mounted  our 
horses  and  after  riding  some  miles  in  the  woods,  we  came 
to  a  fine  cultivated  country  interspersed  with  good  farms. 
Government  lately  has  given  every  possible  assistance  to 
these  new  settlers.  After  a  ride  of  18  miles  we  arrived  at 
Butlersburg,  so  called  from  Col.  Butler,  who  had  barracks 
for  his  Corps  of  Loyalists  and  another  for  the  savages. 
There  are  several  good  buildings  here  and  an  appearance 
of  civilization.  We  had  only  to  cross  Niagara  river  and 
found  ourselves  once  more  in  that  hospitable  garrison.  The 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY    VISITORS.  363 

commanding  officer,  Major  Campbell,  to  whom  we  had 
brought  letters  of  introduction,  had  shown  us  great  atten- 
tions, and  continued  them  during  our  stay  there.  I  saw 
very  little  worth  remarking  at  Niagara  Fort.  The  garrison 
consisted  of  400  soldiers.  The  fortifications  are  defensible. 
The  fort  is  built  upon  an  elevated  point  of  land  which 
commands  the  entrance  of  the  river  from  Lake  Ontario, 
which  is  seen  to  great  advantage. 


CAPTAIN  ENYS'  VISIT  IN  1787. 

The  original  manuscript  of  the  following  journal  is  in 
the  Dominion  Archives  at  Ottawa.  It  was  in  the  possession 
of  a  son  of  Captain  Enys,  the  writer,  who  a  number  of 
years  ago  emigrated  to  New  Zealand.  At  the  Centennial 
Exposition  in  Philadelphia,  in  1876,  Dr.  Selwyn,  then 
Director  of  the  Canadian  Geological  Survey,  met  Mr.  Enys, 
who  in  the  course  of  conversation  respecting  the  changes 
that  had  taken  place  at  Niagara  Falls,  mentioned  that  at  his 
home  in  New  Zealand  he  had  his  father's  manuscript 
journal  of  his  visit  to  Niagara  in  1787.  On  Mr.  Enys' 
return  to  New  Zealand  he  sent  the  manuscript  to  Dr. 
Selwyn,  who  transferred  it  to  the  Archives  Branch.  The 
late  Douglas  Brymner,  then  archivist,  printed  it  in  his 
report  for  1886.  This  was,  it  is  believed,  its  only  publica- 
tion. The  sketch  is  reproduced  from  a  drawing  preserved 
with  the  manuscript. 

1787,  July  1 8th. — From  hence  to  Fort  Slosser  is  about  a 
mile  &  a  half  or  two  miles  on  a  perfectly  straight  and  good 
road,  at  which  place  we  at  length  arrived,  after  being  four 
hours  on  the  road  from  Niagara,  which  is  only  fourteen  miles. 
On  our  arrival  we  found  dinner  over  but  we  soon  got  a 
mutton  chop,  which  we  had  no  sooner  swallowed  than  we 
all  set  out  to  see  the  Falls  taking  Mr.  Hamilton  of  the  53d 


364  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

Regiment  for  our  guide,  who  having  commanded  Fort 
Slosser  for  some  time  knew  his  way. 

After  passing  through  some  fields  and  a  small  piece  of 
wood,  we  came  to  the  river  side  at  an  old  saw-mill,  about 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  brink  of  the  Falls.  This  view 
alone  is  worth  going  many  miles  to  see.  The  current,  which 
is  very  strong  more  than  three  miles  above  the  Falls,  is 
here  increased  by  many  causes,  for  the  river  which  grows 
naturally  narrower  as  it  approaches  the  brink  of  the 
cataract,  is  here  divided  by  a  large  island  in  the  middle;  it 
also  begins  to  be  shallow  and  rocky,  so  that  from  hence 
quite  down  to  the  brink  of  the  Falls  the  water  is  in  a  con- 
tinual foam  and  has  in  many  parts  of  the  distance  Falls 
which  would  be  much  talked  of  were  they  in  any  other 
situations,  which  may  be  easily  conceived  from  the  perpen- 
dicular height  which  the  water  falls  in  the  course  of  this 
quarter  of  a  mile  previous  to  its  reaching  the  brink  of  the 
cataract,  which  is  at  least  sixty  feet;  this  many  seem  to 
think  should  be  added  to  the  perpendicular  height  of  the 
Falls;  whether  it  should  or  no  I  shall  not  presume  to 
determine. 

I  already  find  my  pen,  or  at  least  my  ideas,  inadequate 
to  give  any  account  of  what  is  now  before  me,  as  it  is  not 
only  the  water  which  is  beautiful  but  the  island  also  is 
covered  with  noble  trees  down  quite  to  the  edge  of  the 
water;  to  this  we  must  add  the  many  small  islands  which 
have  been  severed  from  time  to  time  from  the  larger  one 
by  the  force  of  the  current,  and  which  still  partake  of  their 
parent's  verdure  and  beauty.  It  was  with  difficulty  we  could 
prevail  on  ourselves  to  leave  the  place,  even  tho'  we  knew 
we  were  to  go  to  parts  infinitely  more  beautiful.  We  at 
length,  however,  struck  again  into  the  wood  and,  passing 
down  its  skirts,  Mr.  H.  brought  us  out  a  few  yards  below 
the  Fall.  Here  I  for  one  sat  down  for  some  time  in  silent 
admiration  and  astonishment,  at  a  sight  which  I  am  fully 
persuaded  no  pen  or  pencil  can  ever  convey  across  the  sea. 
In  our  present  situation  we  were  too  near  to  the  highest 
part  of  the  Fall,  which  in  a  kind  of  a  sketch  or  plan  I  have 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  365 

annexed  is  marked  I,  to  enjoy  its  full  beauty,  but  we  had 
a  tolerable  good  view  of  the  great,  or  as  it  is  generally 
called,  the  Horseshoe  Fall,  which  is  here  marked  4,  5,  6. 
To  give  any  adequate  idea  of  the  astonishing  variety  which 
here  crowds  upon  your  mind  is  impossible,  and  it  may  be 
well  said  to  be  the  real  sublime  and  beautiful  conveyed  in 
the  language  of  nature,  infinitely  more  strong  than  the 
united  eloquence  of  Pitt,  Fox  and  Burke,  even  if  we  give 
them  the  assistance  of  Loutherbourg  to  help  them. 


CAPT.  ENYS  SKETCH  OF  THE  FALLS. 

As  the  water  during  its  fall  from  different  parts  meeting 
the  rays  of  the  sun  in  different  directions  takes  an  infinite 
number  of  different  colours  and  shades;  to  this  we  must 
add  the  numberless  beautiful  breaks  in  the  water;  the 
delightful  verdure  which  covers  the  islands  and  neighbour- 
ing shores ;  the  beauty  of  the  most  noble  rapid  which  can 
be  conceived,  before  it  ever  reaches  the  brink  of  the  preci- 
pice ;  the  astonishing  column  of  spray  which  rises  from  the 
great  Fall;  the  thundering  noise  which  the  whole  makes 
by  its  fall  on  the  heap  of  stones  below,  from  whence  it  runs, 
no  longer  like  water  but  absolutely  in  such  a  state  of  foam 
as  to  appear  like  a  perfect  river  of  milk,  for  about  100  or 
150  yards,  after  which  it  resumes  its  natural  state  again, 
although  it  is  still  carried  away  by  means  of  a  strong  rapid. 
To  all  this  I  must  add  the  lofty  banks  which  surround  the 
basin  into  which  the  water  falls,  the  tops  of  which  are 
covered  with  noble  trees  quite  close  to  the  edge  of  these 
cliffs.  Hence  I  could  not  help  remarking  to  Mr.  Humphry 
that  before  my  arrival  I  expected  to  have  been  disappointed, 
from  having  my  ideas  raised  too  high  by  hearing  so  many 


366  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY    VISITORS. 

people  join  in  their  praise,  but  that  I  was  sure  from  this 
view  alone  no  one  can  say  too  much  of  it. 

Here  some  of  our  party  wished  to  go  down  to  the  bottom, 
a  thing  very  seldom  done  on  this  side,  as  well  from  the  diffi- 
culty of  the  descent  as  that  when  down  your  view  is  by  no 
means  so  good  as  on  the  opposite  side.  It  was  however 
agreed  upon  to  make  the  attempt,  preparatory  to  which  Mr. 
Hamilton  made  us  all  take  off  our  shoes,  as  in  many  places 
it  is  so  very  slippery  it  would  have  been  more  dangerous 
to  attempt  with  them  on.  Our  party  now  consisted  of  Mr. 
H.  our  guide,  Mr.  Douglas  of  the  65th  and  Mr.  Brunton 
of  the  same  Regiment,  myself,  and  last  of  all  Mr. 
Humphry.  We  all  with  great  difficulty  got  down  about  one 
third  part  of  the  way.  But  when  I  saw  the  path  by  which 
I  was  to  descend  further  I  gave  it  up,  telling  Mr.  Humphry 
that  if  he  choose  to  go  further  I  would  get  out  of  his  way, 
which  I  accordingly  did  and  he  descended  as  low  as  I  had 
done  where  like  me  he  gave  up  the  point.  The  other  three 
gentlemen  completed  their  design  and  on  their  return  very 
candidly  allowed,  although  they  were  well  pleased  with 
what  they  had  done,  now  it  was  over,  they  would  by  no 
means  attempt  it  again  until  ropes  or  something  more  secure 
were  placed  in  the  most  dangerous  parts,  as  in  some  of  the 
steepest  parts  they  were  obliged  to  let  themselves  down  by 
means  of  twisted  stick,  in  the  manner  of  the  faggot  band, 
which  was  tied  to  an  old  stump  above,  which  stick  had  been 
then  in  use  for  three  years.  Mr.  H.  indeed  went  further 
and  acknowledged  that  on  reflection  when  at  the  bottom  he 
entertained  some  doubts  their  being  able  to  reascend. 
However,  they  all  got  up  safe  with  no  other  loss  than  the 
feet  of  their  stockings,  which  were  perfectly  worn  out. 

We  next  went  back  a  few  yards  to  the  brink  of  the 
Falls  and  found  to  my  surprise  that  we  could  not  only 
approach  close  to  the  top  of  the  Falls,  but  that  the  water 
was  nearly  on  a  level  with  the  flat  rock  on  which  we  stood 
(marked  i,)  that  I  could  without  the  least  danger  stoop 
and  take  up  the  water  with  my  hand  after  it  had  fallen 
over  the  precipice.  The  view  which  we  have  here  straight 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  367 

over  the  Falls  is  very  fine,  but  not  so  grand  as  the  one  we 
had  before  left,  except  that  we  saw  the  pillar  of  spray  to 
greater  advantage,  as  the  Fall  from  whence  it  proceeded 
appeared  less  in  this  direction  than  the  former.  I  do  not 
know  how  long  we  should  have  stood  looking  at  the  scene 
before  us,  if  the  setting  of  the  sun  had  not  reminded  us 
that  it  was  time  to  return,  on  which  we  began  to  retreat. 
After  we  had  returned  more  than  a  mile,  on  looking  back 
from  a  little  eminence  we  could  see  the  spray  of  the  Fall 
rising  to  an  immense  height  above  the  surrounding  woods, 
like  the  large  column  of  smoke  which  ascends  from  any 
large  building  on  fire,  but  not  of  so  dark  a  colour. 

Having  gone  a  little  further  we  came  to  the  house  of 
Mr.  Philip  Stedman  where  we  passed  an  agreeable  hour  in 
company  with  him  and  his  niece.  As  Mr.  Humphry  and 
myself  had  no  business  at  the  Fort,  we  staid  a  short  time 
after  the  rest  of  the  party,  and  were  at  last  going  in  quest 
of  our  supper  without  any  hopes  of  seeing  any  of  the  Fall 
for  the  night.  Notwithstanding  it  was  the  very  middle  of 
summer  and  the  day  had  been  extremely  hot,  the  night  was 
very  cold,  so  that  we  had  run  a  good  deal  of  the  way,  when 
stopping  just  before  the  Fort  gate  we  saw  the  most  beau- 
tiful as  well  as  strange  appearance,  that  can  be  well  con- 
ceived. It  was  the  moon  which  was  now  just  setting 
behind  the  spray  of  the  Falls ;  it  appeared  to  rise  to  a  very 
uncommon  height  in  likeness  of  a  very  dark  column,  but 
the  thinner  part  of  the  spray  which  admitted  the  light 
through  it,  gave  all  the  edge  of  the  column  a  luminous 
appearance  which  looked  more  like  a  pillar  fringed  round 
.with  fire,  than  anything  I  can  compare  it  to.  Not  wishing 
to  keep  the  sight  to  ourselves  we  ran  to  call  the  rest  whom 
we  found  collected  round  a  large  fire  from  which  we  could 
with  great  difficulty  draw  them,  as  they  supposed  it  was 
only  a  story  made  for  the  purpose  of  drawing  them  from 
their  seats  by  the  fire,  that  we  might  ourselves  get  posses- 
sion of  them,  by  which  means  they  were  not  out  until  the 
moon  was  very  near  gone,  when  from  what  they  saw  they 
sincerely  lamented  they  had  been  so  tenacious  of  their  seats. 


368  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

This  over  we  all  returned  to  the  Fort  and  after  a  hearty 
supper  we  returned  to  Mr.  Stedman's  again  to  bed  and  slept 
very  sound  until  past  7  o'clock  next  morning  (i9th),  at 
which  time  from  the  orders  which  had  been  given  to  the 
servants  over  night,  I  was  in  hopes  our  chair  and  horses 
were  on  the  other  side  of  the  water;  in  this  I  was  again 
disappointed.  I  next  hastened  to  the  Fort  with  all  expedi- 
tion, where  I  found  both  officers  and  men  still  in  bed,  from 
whence  they  were  soon  roused  and  a  boat  and  party  of  men 
got  to  put  the  chair  and  horses  over,  which  we  soon  sent 
off  with  orders  to  land  them  on  the  north  side  of  the 
Chipaway  Creek,  whilst  we,  having  procured  Mr.  Sted- 
man's light  boat,  remained  behind  to  breakfast. 

Breakfast  being  finished,  we  left  Mr.  Brunton  alone  at 
his  new  Government,  about  ten  in  the  forenoon,  and  after 
having  rowed  up  a  mile  or  more  under  the  East  shore,  we 
crossed  a  very  large  island  that  lies  in  the  middle,  which 
having  gained  we  rowed  up  under  its  western  bank  for  a 
considerable  distance  before  we  ventured  to  cross  to  the 
western  side  of  the  river.  At  length  we  made  our  crossing 
and  landed  about  four  miles  from  the  Falls,  at  a  farm  of 
Mr.  Stedman's;  here  Mr.  Hamilton  left  us  and  striking  to 
the  left  went  to  Fort  Erie,  whilst  the  rest  of  us  taking  the 
right-hand  road  after  a  walk  of  two  miles  came  to  Chipaway 
Creek  where  we  found  our  horses  at  the  house  of  Mr. 
Birch,  one  of  the  principal  people  in  the  settlement.  As 
the  squire  was  not  at  home,  we  were  glad  to  wave  the 
ceremony  of  a  visit,  so  as  soon  as  our  cavalry  were  ready 
we  set  out  toward  the  Falls.  About  another  mile  brought 
us  to  the  head  of  the  rapid,  and  a  short  way  further  we 
came  to  a  mill  Mr.  Birch  has  lately  built ;  it  appears  to  me 
a  very  elegant  piece  of  workmanship,  and  is  to  be  both  a 
grist  and  saw  mill,  but  I  am  very  much  afraid  from  the 
rapids  above  it  he  will  find  it  difficult,  if  not  dangerous,  to 
bring  down  boats  and  rafts  to  it,  although  the  man  who 
superintends  it  says  he  thinks  it  may  be  done  with  ease 
when  they  become  better  acquainted  with  the  currents. 

About    100  yards  below   the  mill,    from   a   point  that 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  369 

projects  a  little,  we  had  a  most  delightful  view  of  the  whole 
rapid,  which  is  near  a  mile  in  length  and  I  should  think 
three  times  as  broad  as  that  on  the  east  side ;  the  numerous 
falls  are  large  in  proportion,  which  of  course  renders  it 
infinitely  more  grand  than  the  one  we  had  seen  the  evening 
before,  but  still  it  wanted  those  beautiful  little  islands  with 
which  the  smaller  one  is  adorned.  In  the  course  of  this 
long  rapid  I  conceive  the  perpendicular  fall  of  the  water  is 
not  less  than  100  feet  before  it  reaches  the  brink  of  the 
Fall,  and  so  full  is  it  of  rocks  and  cascades  that  I  conceive 
it  utterly  impossible  that  any  boat  can  ever  get  down  to  the 
Fall  without  being  overset ;  indeed  some  of  the  29th  Regi- 
ment whilst  in  these  parts  sent  down  an  old  boat  for  the 
purpose  of  seeing  it  go  over  the  Fall.  They  went  them- 
selves below  the  Falls  to  look  out  for  it,  whilst  they  left 
men  on  the  different  points  to  make  signals  when  it  passed 
them,  but  some  of  those  near  the  Fall  nor  the  Gentlemen 
at  the  bottom  never  saw  any  thing  more  of  it. 

As  the  day  was  now  advancing,  we  could  not  stay  so 
long  here  as  I  could  have  wished  for  fear  of  being  stinted 
in  time  at  the  Fall  itself,  for  which  we  now  set  off,  and 
very  soon  reached  the  nearest  house  to  it  and  got  permis- 
sion from  Mr.  Elsworth  the  owner  to  put  our  horses  in  his 
stable ;  but  all  the  family  being  busy  carrying  their  corn  we 
could  get  no  one  to  go  with  us.  However,  as  Mr.  Humphry 
had  been  here  before,  he  undertook  to  guide  us,  and  we 
accordingly  set  out  under  his  directions.  Not  far  from  the 
house  we  came  to  the  edge  of  a  very  steep  bank,  which  we 
descended  through  a  very  deep  ravine  or  gully,  not  without 
some  dread  of  rattlesnakes,  for  whose  habitation  this  place 
seemed  particularly  suited,  and  the  pass  being  so  very 
narrow  and  full  of  stones  and  stumps,  that  had  any  such 
thing  been  there  it  would  be  difficult  to  avoid  it.  After 
going  some  distance  we  got  to  the  bottom  of  this  nasty 
place  and  found  ourselves  again  on  level  ground,  which  took 
us  to  the  brink  of  the  Fall  at  a  place  from  its  appearance 
called  the  Table  rock,  over  a  part  of  which  the  water  rolls. 
This  being  the  nearest  part  to  the  Great  Fall,  you  are  of 


370  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY    VISITORS. 

course  almost  stunned  with  its  noise  and  perfectly  wet  with 
the  continual  mist  arising  from  the  bottom,  in  form  of  a 
pillar,  which  having  gained  a  sufficient  height  is  separated 
by  the  wind  and  falls  like  small  rain  or  mist.  From  hence 
we  had  a  much  better  view  of  the  Falls  than  that  which  we 
had  the  preceding  evening,  but  like  that  we  were  too  near 
the  object  to  see  it  to  perfection.  I  am  told  many  people 
think  this  is  the  best  view  in  which  you  can  place  the  Fall, 
but  I  rather  think  it  can  only  be  such  as  have  never  given 
themselves  the  trouble  to  search  for  any  other.  Here,  they 
say,  you  can  likewise  dip  up  the  water  after  it  has  passed 
the  brink  of  the  precipice.  However  true  this  may  be,  it  is 
not  so  perfectly  so  as  on  the  opposite  side,  as  here  it  is  only 
a  small  branch  of  the  Fall  you  approach ;  on  the  other  side 
it  is  actually  the  main  body  of  water  itself,  as  may  be  seen 
in  the  little  sketch  of  the  top  of  the  Fall  before  given ;  the 
former  or  Fort  Slosser  side  being  marked  i  in  the  plan;  I 
am  now  speaking  of  8.  The  Table  Rock  is  a  very  large 
flat  rock  projecting  from  the  bank  and  overhanging  its 
base  very  much,  by  which  means  it  forms  one  of  the  best 
modes  of  determining  the  height  of  the  Fall,  being  exactly 
upon  the  same  level  and  projecting  so  much  that  a  line  let 
down  from  its  summit  will  drop  very  nearly  at  the  water's 
edge  at  the  bottom.  But  whatever  methods  may  have  been 
taken  to  ascertain  its  height,  that  of  both  sides  is  very  well 
determined,  being  agreed  by  all  hands  to  be  170  feet  on  the 
east,  or  Fort  Slosser  side,  whilst  from  the  Table  Rock  it 
is  only  140,  but  this  30  feet  if  it  is  taken  from  the  perpen- 
dicular of  the  Fall  adds  to  the  noble  rapid  that  is  above  it. 
Having  staid  a  long  while  we  at  length  set  off  from 
hence,  hoping  to  find  a  way  to  a  point  not  many  hundred 
yards  below  where  we  now  were,  without  returning  to  the 
top  of  the  bank  again;  in  this,  however,  we  were  disap- 
pointed, finding  the  brake  too  thick  and  the  ground  too 
swampy  to  admit  of  our  passage,  although  I  hear  there  is  a 
possibility  of  going  to  those  who  are  acquainted  with  the 
place.  This  was  not  our  case,  so  we  were  obliged  to  ascend 
the  gully  by  which  we  came,  at  the  top  of  which  we  turned 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  371 

off  to  the  right  and  soon  found  a  path  leading  to  another 
gully  of  the  same  kind,  through  which  we  a  second  time 
descended  the  bank.  Having  got  down  to  the  level  ground, 
we  could  find  no  kind  of  path;  we  therefore  marked  the 
trees  as  we  went,  thinking  they  might  serve  us  as  a  guide 
on  our  return.  Thus,  guided  by  the  noise  of  the  Falls  more 
than  by  any  thing  else,  we  soon  came  to  the  brink  of  the 
clift  and  striking  off  a  little  to  our  left  found  the  place  we 
were  in  search  of,  and  which  I  believe  is  now  called 
Painter's  Point,  from  a  man  of  that  name  in  whose  ground 
it  is.  Here  we  found  a  spot  which  had  been  in  some 
measure  cleared  (by  Lieutenant  Tinling  of  the  29th  when 
he  was  acting  Engineer  at  Niagara)  on  purpose  to  give  you 
a  good  view  of  the  whole  of  this  grand  object  at  once,  and 
it  most  certainly  is  the  best  view  of  any  on  a  level  with  the 
Fall,  as  here  every  part  is  by  far  more  equidistant  than  in 
any  other  point  you  can  look  at  it  from.  From  hence  you 
look  directly  against  the  island  which  is  in  the  centre,  hav- 
ing the  Great  Fall  to  the  right  and  the  smaller  one  to  the 
left ;  from  this  place  you  have  also  a  better  view  of  a  small 
Fall  on  the  east  side  of  Goat  Island  which  is  called  the 
Montmorrency  Fall,  and  which  is  said  to  disembogue  more 
water  in  the  course  of  a  year  than  the  famous  fall  of  that 
name  near  Quebec,  which  perhaps  it  may,  but  I  do  not  think 
it  is  so  broad  as  that  Fall.  Perhaps  its  very  diminutive 
appearance  here  may  be  only  occasioned  by  its  being  placed 
in  the  midst  of  such  astonishing  large  ones,  as  the  nearest 
computation  that  has  ever  been  made  allows  the  breadth  of 
the  Fall  from  one  side  to  the  other  to  be  1,300  yards,  includ- 
ing all  the  turns  which  there  are  in  the  summit  and  the 
island  in  the  centre;  which  last  may  be  something  more 
than  loo  yards  broad. 

I  could  willingly  have  staid  here  much  longer  than  we 
did,  but  having  determined  to  go  down  to  the  bottom  we 
were  obliged  to  hasten  towards  the  place  where  you  descend. 
This  place  lies  some  yards  to  the  left  of  Painter's  Point, 
from  which  you  pass  all  the  way  on  the  brink  of  the  preci- 
pice, nor  is  it  easy  to  find  the  opening  unless  you  are 


372  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY    VISITORS. 

acquainted  with  it,  as  you  pass  round  a  small  bush  where  you 
find  some  stumps  and  roots  which  assist  you  for  the  first 
three  or  four  yards  of  a  very  steep  bank,  when  you  come  to 
a  place  quite  perpendicular  for  perhaps  about  twelve  feet. 
Here  they  have  put  what  they  call  Indian-ladders,  which  is 
no  more  than  a  tree  about  a  foot  in  diameter  with  notches 
cut  in  its  sides  that  is  placed  rather  slantwise  to  answer  the 
purpose  of  going  down.  Not  far  after  you  pass  the  first  of 
these  ladders,  you  come  to  a  second,  not  quite  so  long,  after 
which  you  descend  through  a  very  steep  gully  full  of  rocks 
and  stumps,  most  part  of  the  way  being  assisted  by  the 
branches  of  the  neighboring  trees.  It  surprised  me  to  find 
that  the  descent  was  so  easy  to  what  I  had  always  been  led 
to  think  it,  which  I  conceive  proceeds  from  many  who  have 
never  tried  it  but  speak  from  hearsay;  indeed  I  am  fully 
persuaded  that  many  who  say  they  have  been  at  the  bottom 
never  have  been  there,  as  they  are  frequently  betrayed  by 
the  erroneous  accounts  they  give  of  the  lower  region,  which 
in  fact  is,  I  believe,  visited  by  but  few. 

Once  arrived  at  the  bottom,  you  receive  ample  reward 
for  the  pains  the  descent  has  occasioned  you.  If  this  noble 
scene  inspire  you  with  awe  when  above,  it  may  be  easily 
conceived  how  much  it  must  be  augmented  when  you  get 
to  the  bottom,  absolutely  into  the  very  basin  whence  all  this 
sheet  of  water  falls.  You  are  no  sooner  clear  of  the  wood 
than  you  have  a  full  and  complete  view  of  all  the  magnif- 
icent scene,  in  which  all  the  various  shades  which  the  water 
receives  in  its  fall,  either  from  the  projecting  rocks  or  from 
the  intersection  of  the  rays  of  the  sun,  appear  to  the 
greatest  of  all  possible  advantage;  besides  which  you  here 
see  nothing  of  the  rapid  above,  your  prospect  being  con- 
fined to  the  perpendicular  fall  and  the  basin  which  receives 
it,  but  then  that  fall  appears  to  much  greater  advantage  and 
much  higher  than  it  does  from  any  of  the  views  above. 

Having  sat  down  a  few  minutes  to  rest  after  our  descent 
and  drank  a  glass  or  two  of  wine,  we  proceeded  to  get  as 
near  the  Fall  as  we  conveniently  could.  This  is  by  far  the 
most  difficult  and  I  may  add,  dangerous  part  of  the  day's 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY    VISITORS.  373 

journey.  The  distance  from  hence  to  the  fall,  is  very  con- 
siderable and  you  have  no  kind  of  road,  the  way  lying  along 
the  beach,  which  is  formed  of  large  stones  which  have  from 
time  to  time  fallen  from  the  high  clifts  which  overhang 
most  part  of  the  way.  These  rocks  lie  just  as  they  happen 
to  have  fallen,  so  that  sometimes  you  are  obliged  to  climb 
over  them,  at  others  to  creep  under  them,  whilst  they  seem 
to  threaten  your  destruction  every  step  you  take ;  many  of 
them  appear  as  if  they  would  fall  every  moment,  being 
only  ballanced  on  a  point,  others  seem  to  have  no  other 
support  than  trees  which  have  fallen  at  the  same  time  with 
themselves,  which  appear  very  slight  supporters  for  such 
immense  masses  of  stone;  then  as  the  apertures  among 
these  rocks  are  not  large  enough  to  admit  of  your  walking 
through,  you  are  obliged  to  creep  through  them  on  your 
hands  and  knees,  or  slide  through  them  on  your  back,  every 
moment  in  danger  of  meeting  with  either  a  water  or  a 
rattle  snake,  for  both  of  which  this  place  is  very  remark- 
able, particularly  the  latter,  and  the  very  best  part  of  the 
road  lies  over  a  parcel  of  large  round  stones  that  slide  under 
your  feet.  Notwithstanding  all  these  dangers,  such  is  the 
beauty  of  the  surrounding  prospect  and  such  the  pleasing 
kind  of  awe  which  I  felt  at  the  time,  that  it  never  once 
struck  my  mind  that  I  was  in  the  least  danger  until  the 
whole  was  over  and  we  had  got  back  again  to  the  entrance 
of  the  wood. 

But  to  return  to  my  tale.  Having  scrambled  over  these 
rocks  until  we  got  pretty  near  the  Fall,  we  found  the  spray 
begin  to  fall  like  hard  rain.  Here  Mr.  Humphry  stopped, 
but  Mr.  Douglas  and  myself  went  on  until  we  got  within 
about  twenty  yards  of  the  Falls.  Here  we  were  in  some 
doubt  whether  or  no  we  should  strip  and  go  as  far  as  we 
could  under  the  Fall;  this  we  however  at  length  rejected, 
as  we  never  found  any  one  pretends  to  have  gone  further 
than  under  the  first  small  shoot,  which  we  thought  unworthy 
the  trouble  of  undressing  for.  There  are  reports  of  people 
that  have  gone  under  the  great  shoot  but  who  they  were  I 
could  not  learn,  although  I  have  examined  several  who 


374  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

asserted  they  had  been  under  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  yet, 
when  questioned  closely  upon  the  subject,  it  appeared  to 
have  been  only  the  small  spout  they  had  been  under.  Yet  I 
by  no  means  mean  to  assert  there  is  not  that  kind  of  cavity 
betwixt  the  under  part  of  the  rock  and  the  fall  itself,  that 
would  admit  of  a  man  going  under  for  some  distance.  On 
the  contrary  from  the  Table  Rock  being  so  very  much 
undermined  near  its  base,  1  conceive  it  to  be  highly  probable 
the  rock  over  which  the  Fall  rolls  is  the  same,  but  as  the 
falling  of  the  spray  is  so  very  thick  and  troublesome  as  to 
prevent  your  seeing  and  almost  to  prevent  your  breathing 
even  where  we  were,  I  do  not  conceive  it  is  possible  for  a 
man  to  exist  under  the  great  shoot  itself. 

However,  we  did  not  advance  thus  far  without  finding 
something  which  had  so  far  as  I  could  find  never  been 
spoken  of  before.  Within  a  few  yards  of  the  place  we 
turned  round,  I  could  perceive  a  very  strong  smell  of 
sulphur,  which  I  remarked  to  Mr.  Douglas  and  on  further 
examination  we  perceived  a  small  rill  which  descended  from 
the  rocks  above  and  all  the  stones  over  which  it  passed 
seemed  covered  with  a  whitish  kind  of  slime.  This  induced 
me  to  taste  the  water,  which  I  found  to  be  exactly  the  same 
as  the  water  at  Harrowgate,  in  Yorkshire.  Mr.  Douglas 
also  tasted  of  the  same  water  and  directly  exclaimed,  "it  is 
just  like  the  washings  of  a  gun  barrel,"  although  he  declares 
he  had  never  heard  the  Harrowgate  water  compared  to  that 
mixture. 

Having  staid  here  for  some  time  contemplating  the 
grandeur  of  the  object  before  us,  our  time  passed  away 
insensibly  until  we  found  by  our  watches  that  it  was  high 
time  we  should  turn  our  backs  upon  the  scene  from  which 
we  had  received  so  much  delight.  On  our  return  we 
employed  ourselves  in  picking  up  a  kind  of  stone  which  is 
said  to  be  the  spray  of  the  Fall  petrified,  but  whether  it  is 
or  no,  I  will  not  pretend  to  determine ;  this  much  I  can  say, 
that  it  grows  or  forms  itself  in  cavities  in  the  clift  about 
half  way  to  the  top,  from  whence  it  falls  from  time  to  time ; 
its  composition  is  a  good  deal  like  a  piece  of  white  marble 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  375 

which  has  been  burnt  in  the  fire,  so  that  it  may  be  pulver- 
ized with  ease.  Whatever  may  be  its  composition,  it  does 
not  appear  that  it  will  bear  to  be  exposed  to  the  air,  as  some 
pieces  which  seem  to  have  fallen  longer  than  the  rest  are 
quite  soft,  while  such  as  have  lately  fallen  are  of  a  much 
harder  nature. 

Having  again  made  our  way  back  to  the  edge  of  the  wood 
where  we  were  to  reascend,  we  sat  down  to  take  some 
refreshment,  very  well  satisfied  to  have  seen  everything 
worth  our  notice  except  the  rainbow,  which  very  often  forms 
itself  in  the  spray.  During  the  time  we  were  lamenting  the 
loss  of  this  object,  it  made  its  appearance  in  a  most  perfect 
state  across  the  highest  part  of  the  Fall,  which  made  our 
sight  of  this  place  as  complete  as  possible. 

We  now  began  our  ascent  and  after  again  visiting 
Painter's  Point,  in  our  way  we  came  to  the  place  where  we 
had  marked  the  trees ;  we  found  one  or  two  of  the  first  but 
had  done  it  so  very  ill  that  we  could  not  trace  our  way  back 
by  them.  We  therefore  struck  into  the  wood  and  endeav- 
oured to  keep  the  sound  of  the  Falls  directly  behind  us,  by 
which  means  we  found  our  way  by  a  much  nearer  route 
than  the  one  we  had  descended,  from  which  we  again  soon 
reached  the  house  we  had  left  our  horses  at,  after  an 
absence  of  five  hours  and  a  half,  from  which  time  we  had 
been  employed  walking  about  the  place. 

It  may  not  be  improper  here  to  take  notice  of  an  opinion 
which  is  held  by  some  people  of  this  place,  who  seem  to 
think  the  original  situation  of  the  Falls  was  at  the  landing 
which  as  before  observed  is  seven  miles  from  where  they 
now  are,  and  that  through  a  series  of  years  the  water  has 
worn  away  the  channel  that  distance.  Among  those  who 
favour  this  opinion  is  a  Mr.  Hamilton,  a  merchant  at 
Niagara  and  a  man  of  very  good  understanding,  who  says 
also  that  he  has  examined  the  face  of  the  adjacent  country, 
which  has  confirmed  his  opinion,  and  in  particular  conceives 
the  place  which  has  before  been  taken  notice  of  by  the  name 
of  the  Lion's  Den,  to  have  been  made  by  a  channel  of  the 
river  formerly  passing  through  it.  How  far  this  may  be 


376  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

true  I  do  not  know ;  I  did  not  hear  this  opinion  until  after 
I  had  seen  the  place,  at  which  time  no  such  idea  ever  entered 
my  head.  The  principal  reasons  they  seem  to  give  for  this 
opinion  are  two :  First,  from  the  abrupt  rise  of  the  bank  of 
the  river  at  the  Landing,  which  from  being  of  a  moderate 
height  and  almost  every  where  accessible  from  the  water's 
edge,  they  became  at  once  very  high  and  perpendicular 
clifts;  at  the  same  time  the  river  becomes  much  more 
narrow  and  rapid  than  before.  The  second  reason  seems 
to  have  more  reason  in  it,  and  is,  that  according  to  their 
language  the  Falls  have  altered  their  position  or  retreated 
since  the  memory  of  men.  Having  made  all  the  inquiries  I 
could  concerning  this  movement,  I  found  that  about  twenty 
years  since,  there  was  a  projecting  rock  at  the  end  of  the 
centre  island  which  had  fallen  and  seems  to  be  the  only 
ground  work  for  this  strong  contested  opinion.  One  thing 
I  must  grant,  that  it  is  possible  that  in  a  very  long  series  of 
years  they  may  alter  a  little  and  for  this  reason :  the  spray 
rising  from  the  bottom  continually  striking  against  the 
clifts  wears  it  away  and  forms  a  kind  of  cavity  over  which 
a  large  rock  projects,  as  the  Table  Rock  already  mentioned, 
which,  when  it  becomes  so  undermined  that  it  is  not  able 
to  sustain  the  weight  of  water  which  overflows  it  in  great 
floods,  must  naturally  fall.  How  long  it  may  take  the  water 
to  excavate  its  clifts  in  this  manner  I  cannot  determine ;  all 
I  can  say  is,  the  place  where  the  rock  fell  twenty  years  ago 
does  not  yet  appear  to  be  the  least  worn  by  its  influence,  nor 
does  any  one  pretend  to  remember  the  Table  Rock  any  other 
than  it  now  is,  projecting  very  far  over  its  base.  By  which 
I  conceive  we  may  fairly  conclude  it  will  take  many  cen- 
turies to  bring  about  this  revolution,  which  when  done  only 
alters  one  small  part  of  the  Fall  for  a  yard  or  two.  At  that 
rate,  how  long  it  would  have  taken  to  have  retreated  from 
the  landing  I  shall  leave  to  those  who  pretend  from  such 
causes  to  ascertain  the  age  of  our  terrestrial  globe.  But 
even  if  we  should  for  a  moment  grant  the  possibility  of 
their  favourite  maxim,  what  is  become  of  the  immense 
quantity  of  stone,  which  must  from  time  to  time  have 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  377 

fallen  during  its  movement.  This  seems  to  me  to  be  a 
question  none  can  answer,  certain  a  great  quantity  of  stone 
must  have  been  in  a  channel  above  seven  miles  long  and 
from  a  half  to  a  whole  mile  broad,  and  from  seventy  to 
eighty  feet  deep.  Had  it  fallen  in  such  quantities  as  it  is 
natural  to  suppose  it  is  very  strange  the  fall  should  keep  its 
present  perpendicular  form;  it  is  by  far  more  natural  to 
think  had  this  been  the  case  that  these  immense  rocks,  re- 
posing where  they  fell,  would  have  altered  the  Fall  from 
a  perpendicular  to  a  strong  rapid.  But  say  the  advocators 
for  this  opinion,  the  force  of  the  water  has  driven  them 
away  from  its  foot.  This  may  also  be  true  in  a  small 
measure,  for  where  it  is,  the  rocky  part  of  the  river  would 
not  break  off  so  abruptly  just  at  the  same  place  where  the 
mountain  ends,  which  is  at  present  the  case,  for  not  more 
than  two  hundred  yards  from  the  end  of  this  rocky  rapid 
part  which  is  the  spot  they  say  the  Fall  originally  occupied, 
the  River  expands  itself  and  becomes  deep,  muddy  and 
tranquil,  which  course  it  continues  for  about  9  miles  by  the 
water  to  the  mouth,  the  outside  of  which  is  encumbered 
with  a  bar  of  sand. 

I  also  when  at  the  Fall  observed  another  circumstance 
which  seems  to  be  against  their  having  been  once  so  far 
down  the  river.  Below  the  present  situation  of  them  is  a 
circle  of  more  than  a  quarter  perhaps  a  mile  or  more  in 
diameter  whilst  the  outlet  is  not  so  wide.  I  conceive  this 
part  has  been  widened  by  the  same  means  the  Falls  have 
retired,  as  when  you  get  beyond  the  influence  of  the  spray 
the  river  assumes  its  natural  breadth.  Speaking  to  Mr. 
Birch,  who  lives  at  the  mouth  of  the  Chipaway  Creek,  he 
said  he  had  perceived  a  regular  flux  and  reflux  in  the  Creek, 
resembling  the  tide  of  the  Sea.  Mr.  Hamilton  who  I  have 
before  mentioned,  says  it  is  not  a  regular  flux  or  reflux  at 
all,  but  that  occasionally  the  current  runs  up  instead  of 
down,  and  what  appears  at  first  more  extraordinary  is,  that 
the  Creek  has  its  source  to  the  West  and  runs  to  the  East- 
ward yet  it  is  a  Westerly  or  a  wind  directly  down  the  Creek 
which  occasions  the  Current  to  run  up  it  to  the  Westward. 


378  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY   VISITORS. 

This  he  accounted  for  in  some  measure  to  my  satisfaction. 
It  is  well  known  that  Lake  Erie  is  to  the  Westward  of  this 
place  in  which  a  Westerly  wind  has  great  powers  and  driv- 
ing its  waters  into  this  outlet  meets  with  no  resistance  until 
it  comes  to  the  Falls  where  not  being  able  to  empty  itself 
so  fast  as  it  comes  from  the  Lake  it  causes  the  waters  above 
the  rapids  to  rise.  Now  this  Creek  being  a  dead  swampy 
Creek,  just  above  the  rapid,  some  of  the  repulsed  water 
forces  itself  into  it  and  counteracting  its  own  current 
favours  one  of  the  contrary  way. 


JAMES  SHARAN  IN  1787. 

An  exceedingly  rare  book  is  "The  Adventures  of  James 
Sharan:  compiled  from  the  Journal,  written  during  his 
voyages  and  travels  in  the  Four  Quarters  of  the  Globe." 
A  neat  little  demi-octavo  of  240  pages,  it  was  printed  at 
Baltimore  in  1808.  "The  publication,"  says  the  preface, 
"owes  its  appearance  from  the  press,  to  the  solicitations  of 
a  great  number  of  respectable  persons  in  the  neighborhood 
in  which  the  author  resides,"  which,  the  reader  presently 
learns,  was  Charleston,  S.  C. 

According  to  this  narrative,  James  Sharan  was  born  in 
Liverpool  in  1762;  was  stolen,  when  a  lad  of  ten,  by  a 
press-gang,  and  carried  off  to  sea  on  board  the  Princess. 
They  fought  with  a  pirate,  and  after  a  desperate  battle,  in 
which  twenty-five  of  the  Princess  crew  were  killed,  the 
pirate  was  taken,  and  towed  into  Plymouth,  Eng.  In 
August,  1772,  having  refitted,  they  sailed  again.  Many 
adventures  follow,  but  there  is  a  break  in  the  journal  from 
1772  to  1777,  when  we  find  the  author  embarked  on  another 
cruise.  The  next  year  he  was  injured  in  an  engagement 
and  left  in  a  New  York  hospital.  When  recovered,  he 
forsook  the  sea,  went  to  Philadelphia  and  wandered  inland. 
Then  follows  an  interesting  account  of  his  life,  first  as  an 


EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY   VISITORS.  379 

apprentice  wheelwright,  then  as  an  itinerant  trader.  He 
prospered,  and  made  various  voyages  to  Europe,  on  one 
of  which  he  narrowly  escaped  drowning.  He  carried  furs 
to  Scotland,  and  brought  back  Irish  linens.  A  venture  in 
tobacco  paid  well.  In  the  spring  of  1787,  being  at  New 
Orleans,  "I  resolved,"  he  says,  "to  penetrate  into  the 
United  States  by  a  course  up  the  river  Mississippi,  and 
endeavor  to  find  my  way  through  the  forests  and  Indian 
tribes,  until  I  had  seen  that  wonder,  the  Falls  of  Niagara." 
He  had  experiences  with  the  Spanish,  the  French,  and 
various  Indian  tribes.  "I  pursued  my  way  through  the 
North  Western  Territory,  and  after  the  lapse  of  several 
weeks,  came  to  a  settlement  of  Americans  near  the  Lakes. 
I  had  during  my  journey  met  with  several  tribes  of  Indians, 
and  a  considerable  number  of  traders,  by  whom  I  was 
supplied,  and  received  every  direction  to  reach  the  object 
of  my  desire,  the  Falls  of  Niagara." 

The  absence  of  dates  and  precise  data,  gives  a  dubious 
quality  to  Sharan's  pages.  If  we  take  his  word  for  it,  it 
was,  apparently,  in  the  summer  or  autumn  of  1787,  or 
perhaps  later,  when  he  reached  Niagara,  of  which  he  gives 
the  following  account: 

The  waterfall  of  Niagara,  by  far  the  greatest  in  the 
world  hitherto  discovered,  is  about  ten  miles  from  the  fort 
of  the  same  name.  The  course  of  the  river  is  from  S.  S.  E. 
to  N.  N.  W.  and  the  rock  of  the  fall  forms  a  kind  of  figure 
like  a  hollow  circle  or  horse  shoe.  Above  the  fall  in  the 
middle  of  the  river,  is  an  island  about  300  yards  long;  the 
lower  end  of  which  is  just  at  the  edge  of  the  fall.  Before 
the  water  comes  to  this  island,  it  runs  but  slowly  compared 
with  its  motion  afterwards,  when  it  grows  extremely  rapid, 
running  with  surprising  swiftness  before  it  comes  to  the 
fall.  It  is  perfectly  white,  and  in  several  places  is  thrown 
high  up  into  the  air.  The  water  that  runs  down  on  the  west 


380  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY    VISITORS. 

side  is  in  greater  abundance,  and  whiter  than  that  on  the 
opposite  side;  and  seems  almost  to  outfly  an  arrow  in 
swiftness.  When  a  person  is  at  the  fall  and  looks  up  the 
river,  he  may  perceive  that  the  water  is  every  where  ex- 
ceedingly steep,  almost  like  the  side  of  a  hill ;  but  on  look- 
ing at  the  fall  itself,  the  astonishment  it  occasions  is  im- 
possible to  be  described. 

The  height  of  the  fall  is  exactly  137  feet;  and  when  the 
water  is  come  to  the  bottom,  it  flies  back  to  a  great  height 
in  the  air.  The  noise  may  sometimes  be  heard  at  the  great 
distance  of  forty  miles.  The  peculiar  strength  of  the 
sound  which  is  sometimes  heard,  is  an  infallible  prognostic 
of  rough  or  rainy  weather. 

From  the  place  where  the  water  falls  there  arises  a 
prodigious  vapour,  like  a  thick  smoke,  insomuch  that  when 
viewed  at  a  distance,  a  stranger  might  suppose,  that  the 
nations  [natives?]  had  set  the  forests  on  fire.  These 
vapours  rise  very  high  in  the  air  when  it  is  calm,  but  are 
dispersed  by  the  wind  when  it  blows  hard.  If  any  person 
go  into  this  vapour,  or  if  the  wind  blow  it  on  him,  it  is  so 
penetrating  that  in  a  few  moments,  he  will  be  as  wet  as  if 
he  had  been  emersed  in  water. 

Some  persons  are  of  opinion,  that  when  birds  happen  to 
fly  into  the  smoke  of  the  fall,  they  immediately  drop  down 
and  perish  in  the  water ;  either  because  their  wings  become 
wet,  or  that  the  tremendous  noise  of  the  fall  astonishes  and 
confounds  them :  but  others  think  that  this  opinion  is  merely 
fancy;  because  among  the  great  number  of  birds  found 
dead  about  the  fall,  there  are  no  other  sorts  than  such  as 
mostly  live  in  the  water,  swans,  geese,  ducks,  teal,  &c. 
Great  flocks  of  these  animals  are  often  seen  going  to 
destruction  in  the  following  manner:  They  swim  in  the 
river  above  the  fall,  and  so  are  carried  down  lower  and 
lower  by  the  water;  and  as  water  fowl  are  commonly 
pleased  with  being  carried  by  the  stream,  they  indulge 
themselves  in  this  pleasure,  till  the  rapidity  of  the  water, 
renders  it  impossible  for  them  to  rise,  and  they  are  conse- 
quently hurried  down  the  precipice. 


EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY   VISITORS.  381 

In  the  months  of  September  and  October,  such  prodi- 
gious quantities  of  dead  water  fowl  are  found  every  morn- 
ing below  the  fall,  that  they  afford  ample  subsistence  for 
the  garrison  at  the  fort.  Here  are  also  frequently  found 
the  bodies  of  deer,  bears,  and  other  animals  which  have 
attempted  to  cross  the  water  above  the  fall. 

A  variety  of  melancholy  instances  of  persons  having 
lost  their  lives  in  this  fall,  is  recorded,  but  few  are  more 
affecting  than  the  following,  which  is  related  by  a  traveller, 
who  explored  the  cataract. 

"An  unfortunate  Indian  was  reposing  in  a  state  of 
inebriety  in  his  canoe,  which  was  properly  secured  at  the 
distance  of  some  miles  above  the  cataracts,  while  his  wife 
sat  on  the  shore  to  watch  his  slumbers.  After  some  time, 
a  sailor  from  one  of  the  vessels  on  the  lake,  arrived  at  the 
spot,  and  took  some  indecent  liberties  with  the  Indian 
female.  The  woman  naturally  attempted  to  rouse  her 
husband,  but  before  she  could  effect  her  design,  the  brutal 
mariner,  cut  the  cord  of  the  canoe  and  set  it  adrift.  The 
little  vessel  glided  down  the  stream,  and  in  the  space  of  a 
few  minutes  it  was  seen  to  enter  the  rapids. 

"The  Indian,  awakened  by  the  violent  motion  of  the 
waves,  started  up,  and  on  perceiving  his  perilous  situation, 
he  grasped  his  paddle  with  a  look  of  inexpressible  horror; 
but  finding  it  absolutely  impossible  to  stem  the  force  of  the 
current,  he  calmly  wrapped  himself  up  in  his  blanket  and 
resumed  his  former  position  at  the  bottom  of  the  canoe. 
In  the  space  of  a  few  moments,  he  was  hurried  down  the 
precipice  and  was  never  discovered  more." 

The  following  instance  of  magnanimity  and  heroism  in 
an  attempt  to  save  human  life  deserves  insertion  here;  not 
only  as  a  proof  that  those  whom  we  call  savages,  possess 
the  most  tender  feelings  of  our  nature,  but  also  as  it  may 
excite  a  blush  in  the  cheek  of  many  selfish,  brutal,  hard- 
hearted persons  who  call  themselves  civilized  Christians. 

There  is  an  island  in  the  middle  of  the  fall  which  was 
formerly  supposed  inaccessible;  but  an  accident  that  hap- 
pened about  sixty  years  ago  made  it  appear  otherwise. 


382  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY    VISITORS. 

Two  Indians  went  out  from  Fort  Niagara  to  hunt  upon  an 
island  that  is  situated  in  the  middle  of  the  river  above  the 
great  fall,  which  was  then  stocked  with  abundance  of  deer ; 
but  having  indulged  too  freely  in  the  use  of  some  French 
brandy,  they  fell  asleep,  and  their  canoe  drove  back  with 
the  stream  until  it  approached  that  island  which  is  in  the 
middle  of  the  fall.  Here  they  were  awakened  by  the  noise 
of  the  cataract,  and  began  to  give  themselves  over  as  lost, 
but  after  some  vigorous  exertions,  they  effected  a  landing 
upon  the  island.  At  first  they  exulted  in  the  idea  of  their 
escape;  but  upon  cool  reflection  they  found  themselves 
hardly  in  a  better  state  than  if  they  had  gone  down  the 
fall,  since  they  had  no  other  alternative  than  either  to  throw 
themselves  down  the  same,  or  to  perish  with  hunger.  After 
some  time,  however,  hard  necessity  put  them  on  invention; 
and  as  they  found  plenty  of  wood  on  the  island,  they  made 
a  ladder  of  the  bark  of  the  lind  tree,  in  order  to  reach  the 
water  below ;  one  end  of  this  ladder  they  fastened  to  a 
large  tree  that  grew  on  the  side  of  a  rock  above  the  fall 
and  let  the  other  end  to  the  water.  By  this  contrivance 
they  descended  to  the  bottom  in  the  middle  of  the  fall ;  and 
then  threw  themselves  out  into  the  water,  thinking  to  swim 
on  shore.  Scarcely,  however,  had  they  begun  to  swim, 
before  they  were  thrown  back  with  violence  against  the  rock 
from  which  they  came,  and  after  several  fruitless  attempts 
they  were  compelled  to  re-ascend  to  the  island.  After 
some  time  they  discovered  Indians  on  the  shore,  who  ap- 
peared to  pity  their  misfortune,  but  gave  them  little  hope  of 
assistance.  These  ran  to  inform  the  commandant  of  the 
fort  of  the  situation  of  their  friends  and  he  soon  projected 
the  means  of  their  deliverance  in  the  following  manner. 

The  water  that  runs  on  the  east  side  of  the  island  is 
shallow,  especially  toward  the  shore.  The  commandant, 
therefore,  caused  some  poles  to  be  made  and  pointed  with 
iron,  and  by  the  help  of  these,  two  Indians  offered  to  walk 
to  the  island  to  save  their  unfortunate  brethren  or  to  perish 
in  the  attempt.  Each  had  two  such  poles  in  his  hands,  to 
set  to  the  bottom  of  the  stream  in  order  to  keep  him  steady ; 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  383 

in  this  manner  they  safely  reached  the  island,  and  brought 
away  the  poor  creatures,  who  were  almost  perishing  for 
want  of  food. 

On  the  west  side  of  this  island,  are  some  small  rocks; 
and  in  former  times  a  part  of  the  rock  at  this  side  of  the 
fall  hung  over  in  such  a  manner,  that  the  water  which  fell 
perpendicularly  from  it  left  a  vacancy  below,  so  that  people 
could  go  under  between  the  rock  and  the  water ;  but  some 
years  ago,  the  prominent  part  broke  off  and  fell  down. 
The  breadth  of  the  fall  as  it  runs  in  a  semi-circle  is  about 
three  hundred  feet.  [ !] 

Every  day  when  the  sun  shines,  from  ten  o'clock  in  the 
morning  till  two  in  the  afternoon  may  be  seen,  below  the 
fall,  the  similitude  of  a  beautiful  rainbow,  and  sometimes 
two;  within  one  another.  The  brightness  and  clearness  of 
this  phenomenon  depends  on  the  quantity  of  vapour  that 
results  from  the  spray  of  the  cataract;  for  when  the  wind 
drives  the  vapours  away  the  rainbow  disappears ;  but  as 
soon  as  new  vapours  come,  it  resumes  its  former  appear- 
ance. The  rock  of  the  fall  consists  of  a  grey  lime  stone. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  correct  any  statements  in  the 
foregoing.  Many  of  them  seem  based  on  what  earlier 
travelers  had  published,  Peter  Kalm  in  particular,  rather 
than  on  Sharan's  own  observation.  He  says  that  from 
Niagara  he  "traveled  through  the  Gennessee  country  to 
Albany,"  and  so  on  to  New  York,  but  all  with  a  suspicious 
absence  of  dates.  The  next  date  in  the  narrative  is 
February  17,  1789,  when  he  reached  his  home  at  Charleston, 
"having  traveled  during  my  absence  more  than  10,000  miles, 
principally  on  foot,  and  alone,  and  having  been  from  home 
nearly  twenty-two  months." 

His  subsequent  travels  took  him  to  Africa,  where  he 
had  experiences  recalling  those  of  Mungo  Park  among  the 
Moors;  to  China,  and  elsewhere,  a  most  adventurous  and 
varied  career. 


384  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY   VISITORS. 

ANDREW  ELLICOTT,  1789. 

The  following  description  of  the  Falls  of  Niagara  is 
from  a  letter  by  Andrew  Ellicott  to  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush, 
dated  "Niagara,  Dec.  10,  1789."  It  is  here  taken  from  the 
Massachusetts  Magazine  of  July,  1790.  It  appeared  in 
several  other  publications,  in  the  United  States  and  Europe, 
at  about  that  time. 

NIAGARA,  Dec.  10,  1789. 

DEAR  SIR — Among  the  many  natural  curiosities  which 
this  country  affords,  the  Cataract  of  Niagara  is  infinitely 
the  greatest.  In  order  to  have  a  tolerable  idea  of  this 
stupendous  fall  of  water,  it  will  be  necessary  to  conceive 
that  part  of  the  country  in  which  Lake  Erie  is  situated,  to 
be  elevated  above  that  which  contains  Lake  Ontario  about 
three  hundred  feet.  The  slope  which  separates  the  upper 
and  lower  country  is  generally  very  steep,  and  in  many 
places  almost  perpendicular.  It  is  formed  by  horizontal 
strata  of  stone,  great  part  of  which  is  what  we  commonly 
call  limestone.  The  slope  may  be  traced  from  the  north 
side  of  Lake  Ontario,  near  the  Bay  of  Toronto,  round  the 
west  end  of  the  Lake ;  thence  its  direction  is  generally  east, 
between  Lake  Ontario  and  Lake  Erie — it  crosses  the  strait 
of  Niagara  and  the  Cheneseco  river,  after  which  it  becomes 
lost  in  the  country  towards  the  Seneca  Lake.  It  is  to  this 
slope  that  our  country  is  indebted,  both  for  the  Cataract  of 
Niagara  and  the  great  Falls  of  the  Cheneseco. 

The  Cataract  of  Niagara  was  formerly  down  at  the 
northern  side  of  the  slope,  near  to  that  place  which  is  now 
known  by  the  name  of  the  Landing;  but  from  the  great 
length  of  time,  added  to  the  great  quantity  of  water,  and 
distance  which  it  falls,  the  solid  stone  is  worn  away  for 
about  seven  miles  up  towards  Lake  Erie,  and  a  chasm  is 
formed,  which  no  person  can  approach  without  horror. — 
Down  this  chasm  the  water  rushes  with  a  most  astonishing 
velocity,  after  it  makes  the  great  pitch.  In  going  up  the 
road  near  this  chasm,  the  fancy  is  constantly  engaged  in  the 
contemplation  of  the  most  romantic  and  awful  prospects 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  385 

imaginable,  till,  at  length,  the  eye  catches  the  Falls: — the 
imagination  is  instantly  arrested,  and  you  admire  in  silence ! 
The  river  is  about  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  poles  wide 
at  the  Falls,  and  the  perpendicular  pitch  one  hundred  and 
fifty  feet.  The  fall  of  this  vast  body  of  water  produces  a 
sound  which  is  frequently  heard  at  a  distance  of  twenty 
miles,  and  a  sensible  tremulous  motion  in  the  earth  for 
some  poles  round.  A  heavy  fog,  or  cloud,  is  constantly 
ascending  from  the  Falls,  in  which  rainbows  may  always  be 
seen  when  the  sun  shines.  This  fog,  or  spray,  in  the  winter 
season,  falls  upon  the  neighboring  trees,  where  it  congeals, 
and  produces  a  most  beautiful  crystalline  appearance.  This 
remark  is  equally  applicable  to  the  Falls  of  Cheneseco. 

The  difficulty  which  would  attend  levelling  the  rapids  in 
the  chasm,  prevented  my  attempting  it;  but  I  conjectured 
the  water  must  descend  at  least  sixty-five  feet.  The  per- 
pendicular pitch  at  the  Cataract  is  one  hundred  and  fifty 
feet;  to  these  add  fifty-eight  feet,  which  the  water  falls  in 
the  last  half  mile,  immediately  above  the  Falls,  and  we 
have  two  hundred  and  seventy-three  feet,  which  the  water 
falls  in  the  distance  of  about  seven  miles  and  an  half.  If 
either  ducks  or  geese  inadvertently  alight  in  the  rapids  above 
the  great  Cataract,  they  are  incapable  of  getting  on  the  wing 
again,  and  are  instantly  hurried  on  to  destruction. 

There  is  one  appearance  at  this  Cataract  worthy  of  some 
attention,  and  which  I  do  not  remember  to  have  seen  noted 
by  any  writer.  Just  below  the  great  pitch,  the  water  and 
foam  may  be  seen  puffed  up  in  spherical  figures,  nearly  as 
large  as  common  cocks  of  hay ;  they  burst  at  the  top,  and 
project  a  column  of  spray  to  a  prodigious  height;  they 
then  subside,  and  are  succeeded  by  others,  which  burst  in 
like  manner.  This  appearance  is  most  conspicuous  about 
half  way  between  the  island  that  divides  the  Falls  and  the 
west  side  of  the  strait,  where  the  largest  column  of  water 
descends.  I  am,  &c., 

ANDREW  ELLICOTT. 

This  description  was  widely  printed.  It  appeared  in  the 
Columbian  Magazine  for  June,  1790.  It  was  printed  in  the 


386  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

Massachusetts  Magazine,  July,  1790.  On  being  reprinted 
in  the  European  Magazine,  October,  1793,  the  editor  added 
this  comment:  "It  is  said  by  those  who  have  visited  this 
stupendous  Cataract,  that  the  descent  into  the  chasm  is 
exceedingly  difficult,  because  of  the  great  height  of  the 
banks.  A  person  having  descended,  however,  may  go  up 
to  the  bottom  of  the  Falls,  and  take  shelter  behind  the  tor- 
rent, between  the  falling  water  and  the  precipice,  where 
there  is  a  space  sufficient  to  contain  a  number  of  people  in 
perfect  safety,  and  where  conversation  may  be  carried  on 
without  much  interruption  from  the  noise,  which  is  less  here 
than  at  a  considerable  distance.  This  is  not  unworthy  the 
attention  of  the  philosophic  reader." 


PATRICK  CAMPBELL,  1791. 

Patrick  Campbell,  who  traveled  through  Canada  and  the 
region  of  the  Lower  Lakes  in  1791-2,  sojourned  for  some 
time  on  the  Niagara.  The  pages  of  his  exceedingly  rare 
book  ("Travels  in  the  interior  inhabited  parts  of  North 
America,"  etc.,  Edinburgh,  1793),  afford  many  data  for 
our  local  history,  but  little  by  way  of  description.  He 
prints  Ellicott's  figures  of  the  height  of  the  falls,  and  adds 
the  following  note: 

A  description  of  these  tremendous  Falls  has  been  so 
often  attempted  by  preceding  travellers,  without  giving  the 
least  idea  adequate  to  the  grandeur  of  the  scene,  that,  lest 
I  split  on  the  same  rock,  I  will  not  essay  it  here;  I  shall 
therefore  only  remark,  that  there  is  an  island  of  a  mile  or 
two  long,  and  about  a  quarter  broad,  which  divides  the 
stream  about  two-thirds  over.  This  island  is  clad  with  poor 
spruce  pine,  and  so  overrun  with  Rattlesnakes,  that  it  was 
dangerous  for  any  person  to  walk  through  it,  until  a  parcel 
of  Swine  were  put  in,  which  nearly  rooted  them  out.  Hogs 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  387 

are  so  fond  of  Snakes,  that  if  once  they  get  a  hold,  should 
they  be  so  hard  bitten  by  a  strong  Rattlesnake  as  to  make 
them  squeel,  which  sometimes  happens,  yet  they  hold  fast 
until  the  Snake  is  devoured.  It  is  said  a  Hog  sometimes 
swells  when  severely  bitten  by  a  Rattlesnake,  but  that  a 
crevice  bursts  open  between  the  hoofs,  through  which  the 
venom  is  discharged,  the  swelling  subsides,  and  the  Hog 
soon  becomes  as  well  as  formerly. 


DUNCAN  INGRAHAM  IN  1792. 

The  following  narrative,  entitled  "Extract  from  a  Letter 
from  a  Gentleman  upon  his  return  from  Niagara,"  dated 
August  8,  1792,  was  printed  in  the  Collections  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society  for  1792.  The  author  is 
said  to  be  Duncan  Ingraham — possibly  an  ancestor  of  the 
distinguished  naval  officer  of  that  name. 

I  am  just  returned  from  Niagara,  about  560  miles  west 
of  Boston.  I  went  first  to  Albany,  from  thence  to  Schenec- 
tada,  about  sixteen  miles;  this  had  been  a  very  consider- 
able place  of  trade,  but  is  now  falling  to  decay:  It  was 
supported  by  the  Indian  traders;  but  this  business  is  so 
arrested  by  traders  far  in  the  country,  that  very  little  of  it 
reaches  so  far  down;  it  stands  upon  the  Mohawk  river, 
about  9  miles  above  the  Falls,  called  the  Cohoes;  but  this 
I  take  to  be  the  Indian  name  for  the  falls :  Its  chief  business 
is  to  receive  the  merchandize  from  Albany,  and  put  it  into 
batteaux,  to  go  up  the  river,  and  forward  to  Albany  such 
produce  of  the  back  country  as  is  sent  to  market.  After 
leaving  Schenectada,  I  travelled  over  a  most  beautiful 
country  of  eighty  miles  to  Fort  Schuyler,  where  I  forded 
the  Mohawk :  This  extent  was  the  scene  of  British  and 
Savage  cruelty,  during  the  late  war,  and  they  did  not  cease, 
while  any  thing  remained  to  destroy.  What  a  contrast  now ! 
every  house  and  barn  rebuilt,  the  pastures  crowded  with 
cattle,  sheep,  etc.,  and  the  lap  of  Ceres  full.  Most  of  the 


388  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

land  on  each  side  of  the  Mohawk  river,  is  a  rich  flat,  highly 
cultivated  with  every  species  of  grain,  the  land  on  each  side 
the  flats,  rising  in  agreeable  slopes ;  this,  added  to  the  view 
of  a  fine  river  passing  through  the  whole,  gives  the  beholder 
the  most  pleasing  sensations  imaginable. 

I  passed  next  through  Whitestown.  It  would  appear  to 
you,  my  friend,  on  hearing  the  relation  of  events  in  the 
western  country,  that  the  whole  was  fable ;  and  if  you  were 
placed  in  Whitestown,  or  Clinton,  ten  miles  west  from  Fort 
Schuyler,  and  see  the  progress  of  improvement,  you  would 
believe  it  enchanted  ground.  You  would  there  view  an 
extensive  well  built  town,  surrounded  by  highly  cultivated 
fields,  which  spot  in  the  year  1783  was  the  "haunt  of 
tribes"  and  the  hiding  place  of  wolves,  now  a  flourishing 
happy  situation,  containing  about  six  thousand  people. 
Clinton  stands  a  little  south  of  Whitestown,  and  is  a  very 
large  thriving  town.  After  passing  Clinton,  there  are  no 
inhabitants  upon  the  road,  until  you  reach  Oneida,  an 
Indian  town,  the  first  of  the  Six  Nations ;  it  contains  about 
five  hundred  and  fifty  inhabitants ;  here  I  slept,  and  found 
the  natives  very  friendly.  The  next  day  I  went  to  Onon- 
daga,  leaving  the  Oneida  lake  on  the  right,  and  the  Onon- 
daga  lake  on  the  left,  each  a  few  miles  distant.  I  slept  at 

Onondaga,  at  the  house  of  a  Mr. who  is  employed  in 

boiling  down  the  waters  of  the  salt  springs,  which  are  about 
7  miles  north  of  his  house,  for  supplying  the  country  with 
salt — he  told  me  that  he  made  about  fifty  bushels  per  week, 
which  he  sold  at  five  shillings  per  bushel,  but  that  any 
quantity  may  be  made,  and  at  a  less  price;  these  springs 
are  in  the  State  reservation,  and  are  a  wonderful  benefit  to 
the  country,  every  part  of  which  is  so  united  by  lakes  and 
rivers  as  to  render  the  supply  of  this  bulky  and  necessary 
article  very  easy.  Independent  of  our  own  settlements  we 
can  supply  the  British  in  the  whole  of  Upper  Canada. 
Thirty-five  miles  from  this  place  I  struck  the  Cayuga  Lake. 
The  road  is  tolerable  for  a  new  country ;  the  land  excellent, 
and  very  heavy  timbered.  There  are  but  three  houses  upon 
this  road.  This  lake  is  from  about  thirty-five  to  forty  miles 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  389 

long,  about  two  miles  wide,  and  abounds  with  salmon,  bass, 
catfish,  eels,  and  many  other  kinds  of  fish.  This  lake 
empties  itself  into  what  is  called  Three  Rivers,  joining  the 
waters  of  the  Oneida  Lake,  and  then  proceeds  by  Oswego 
into  Ontario.  On  each  side  the  Cayuga  Lake  is  a  ferry 
house  and  good  attendance  given. 

Twelve  miles  west  of  the  Cayuga  I  struck  the  Canada 
Saga  lake — no  inhabitant  upon  this  road — this  lake  is  the 
handsomest  piece  of  water  I  ever  beheld;  its  length  and 
breadth  nearly  that  of  Cayuga,  into  which  it  empties.  Upon 
a  pretty  slope,  on  the  new  part  of  this  lake,  stands  a  town, 
called  Geneva ;  it  has  a  fine  effect  from  the  opposite  shore, 
but  disappoints  you  when  you  arrive  at  it.  It  consists  of 
about  twenty  log  houses,  three  or  four  frame  buildings,  and 
as  many  idle  persons  as  can  live  in  them.  Eighteen  miles 
lower,  on  the  same  side  of  this  lake  stands  the  Friend's 
Settlement,  founded  by  Jemima  Wilkinson;  there  are 
eighty  families  in  it,  each  has  a  fine  farm,  and  are  quiet, 
moral,  industrious  people.  There  is  a  road  from  the 
Friend's  Settlement  nearly  completed,  across  the  country, 
to  Genesee  river,  forty-five  miles.  I  went  from  Geneva  to 
Canadaqua,  sixteen  miles,  crossing  the  outlet  of  Canadaqua 
lake,  just  as  I  entered  the  town.  This  is  a  settlement  made 
by  Mr.  Phelps,  and  promises  to  be  a  very  flourishing  one; 
there  are  now  about  thirty  houses  situated  on  a  pleasant 
slope  from  the  lake,  and  the  adjacent  farms  are  very  thriv- 
ing. The  Indians  are  settled  on  all  the  reservations  made 
by  this  State,  and  are  to  be  met  with  at  every  settlement  of 
whites,  in  quest  of  rum ! 

From  Canadaqua  I  travelled  about  twenty-six  miles 
through  a  fine  country,  with  many  settlements  forming; 
this  brought  me  to  Genesee  river.  On  this  river  a  great 
many  farms  are  laying  out ;  sixty-five  miles  from  its  mouth 
is  a  town  marked  by  the  name  of  Williamsburg,  and  will 
in  all  probability  be  a  place  of  much  trade ;  in  the  present 
situation  of  things  it  is  remote,  when  considered  in  a  com- 
mercial point  of  view;  but  should  the  fort  of  Oswego  be 
given  up,  and  the  lock  navigation  be  completed,  there  will 


890  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

not  be  a  carrying  place  between  New- York  and  Williams- 
burg.  The  present  carrying  places  are  as  follow,  viz: 
Albany  to  Schenectada,  sixteen  miles — the  Little  Falls,  on 
the  Mohawk  river,  two  miles — from  the  head  of  the  Mo- 
hawk to  Wood  Creek,  one  mile — Oswego  Falls,  two  miles — 
Genesee  Falls,  two  miles.  Thus  you  see  there  is  only 
twenty-three  miles  to  cut  and  lock,  in  order  to  carry  com- 
merce by  water,  through  an  extent  of  country  capable  of 
maintaining  several  millions  of  people.  The  famous 
Genesee  flats  lie  on  the  borders  of  Genesee  river;  they  are 
about  twenty  miles  in  length,  and  about  four  miles  wide: 
the  soil  is  remarkably  rich,  quite  clear  of  trees,  and  pro- 
ducing grass  near  ten  feet  high.  I  estimate  these  flats  to 
be  well  worth  200,000  £.  as  they  now  lie.  They  are  mostly 
the  property  of  the  Indians.  Taking  a  view  of  this  country 
altogether,  I  do  not  know  such  an  extent  of  ground  so  good. 
Cultivation  is  easy,  and  the  land  is  grateful.  The  progress 
of  settlement  is  so  rapid,  that  you  and  myself  may  very 
probably  see  the  day  when  we  can  apply  these  lines  to  the 
Genesee  country, 

"Here  happy  millions  their  own  lands  possess, 
No  tyrant  awes  them,  nor  no  lords  oppress.'' 

Many  times  did  I  break  out  in  an  enthusiastic  frenzy, 
anticipating  the  probable  situation  of  this  wilderness  twenty 
years  hence.  All  that  reason  can  ask,  may  be  obtained  by 
the  industrious  hand ;  the  only  danger  to  be  feared  is,  that 
luxuries  will  flow  too  cheap. 

After  I  had  reached  the  Genesee  river,  curiosity  led  me 
on  to  Niagara,  ninety  miles — not  one  house  or  white  man 
the  whole  way.  The  only  direction  I  had  was  an  Indian 
path,  which  sometimes  was  doubtful.  The  first  day  I  rode 
fifty  miles,  through  swarms  of  musquetoes,  gnats,  &c. 
beyond  all  description.  At  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  I 
reached  an  Indian  town,  called  Tonnoraunto — it  contains 
many  hundreds  of  the  savages,  who  live  in  very  tolerable 
houses,  which  they  make  of  timber  and  cover  with  bark. 
By  signs  I  made  them  understand  me,  and  for  a  little  money 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  391 

they  cut  me  limbs  and  bushes  sufficient  to  erect  a  booth, 
under  which  I  slept  very  quietly,  on  the  grass. 

The  next  day  I  pursued  my  journey,  nine  miles  of  which 
lay  through  a  very  deep  swamp ;  with  some  difficulty  I  got 
through,  and  about  sun-down  arrived  at  the  fort  of 
Niagara :  Here  the  centinel  inquired  from  whence  we  came ; 
upon  his  being  told,  he  called  the  sergeant  of  the  day,  who 
escorted  us  to  the  captain  of  the  guard,  he  asked  our  names 

(a  Mr. ,  of ,  was  with  me),  and  said  he  supposed 

we  came  upon  our  private  business,  &c. — he  sent  us  to  the 
commandant  who  entered  our  names,  and  offered  us  a  pass 
to  go  over  to  the  British  side,  which  we  accepted.  Quite 
fatigued,  we  were  happy  to  find  a  tavern,  and  something 
to  eat;  a  few  hours'  sleep  brought  me  again  to  myself. 
This  fort  is  now  garrisoned  by  the  5th  regiment,  com- 
manded formerly  by  Earl  Piercey,  and  had  the  honour  of 
dancing  yankee  doodle  on  the  plains  of  Cambridge,  igth 
April,  1775.  The  commander  of  the  fort  is  a  Col.  Smith. 
The  day  after  our  arrival  we  crossed  the  river  Erie  to  the 
town  of  Niagara  where  probably  the  British  fort  will  be 
built,  when  the  present  one  is  given  up.  We  met  Col. 
B[utler].  This  is  the  man  who  did  so  much  execution  in 
the  late  war  with  the  Indians,  upon  the  Mohawk  river, 
Schohary  and  Cherry  Valley.  We  found  him  holding  a 
council  with  a  body  of  the  chiefs  who  were  at  Philadelphia 
in  April  last,  informing  him  what  they  had  done  there.  A 
Mr.  Johnson,  some  relation  of  the  famous  Sir  John  John- 
son, interpreter  to  the  Indians,  was  also  present;  and  I 
have  no  doubt  remaining  but  they  effaced  every  favourable 
impression  made  on  their  minds  by  presents  from  Con- 
gress. I  see  enough  to  convince  me  of  the  absurdity  of  our 
endeavours  to  hold  the  savages  by  presents,  while  the 
British  are  situated  at  Detroit,  Niagara,  &c.  They  have  all 
their  clothing,  cooking  utensils,  ammunition,  &c.  served 
almost  as  regularly  as  the  troops  on  garrison ;  if  they  want 
provisions  they  get  it  free. 

Those  tribes  called  the  Six  Nations  we  are  at  peace  with 
and  take  much  pains  to  cultivate  a  good  understanding,  but 


392  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

we  deceive  ourselves.  The  old  men,  the  women,  and  the 
children  remain  at  home  inactive  while  all  the  young  war- 
riors join  the  fighting  powers  against  us — this  is  all  they 
could  do,  if  we  were  at  open  war  with  them.  An  Indian 
becomes  a  miserable  being  when  deprived  of  his  hunting- 
ground,  and  surrounded  with  cellars  of  rum  or  whisky. 
The  whole  Six  Nations  live  on  grounds  called  the  State 
Reservations,  and  are  intermediate  spaces  settled  on  both 
sides  by  white  people;  this  has  a  tendency  to  drive  off  the 
game,  and  if  by  chance  they  kill  a  bear,  or  a  deer,  his  skin 
goes  at  once  for  rum;  in  this  way  they  are  become  poor 
enervated  creatures.  They  cannot  keep  together  a  great 
while,  and  I  expect  they  will  quit  all  this  part  of  the  coun- 
try, and  retire  over  the  lakes  Ontario  and  Erie.  Their 
whole  number  is  about  6000,  of  which  1000  are  warriors — 
how  contemptible  compared  with  their  former  greatness! 
The  leading  men  of  these  Six  Nations,  or  what  they  call 
Chiefs,  were  on  the  road  with  me  going  to  Buffaloe  Creek, 
to  hold  a  council;  their  object  I  was  informed  was  to  use 
their  influence  with  the  hostile  tribes  to  make  a  peace.  This 
will  have  no  effect!  Power  is  the  influence  with  Indians; 
this  alone  will  give  us  peace.  I  see  some  of  the  Indians 
who  fought  the  battle  at  the  Miami ;  and  by  an  interpreter 
received  a  very  tolerable  account  of  the  action;  they  were 
of  opinion  that  our  troops  did  not  do  their  duty. 

Col.  B.  told  me  that  the  only  way  to  make  a  peace  with 
the  Indians  was  to  apply  to  Lord  Dorchester,  or  the  com- 
mander in  chief  at  Quebec,  and  let  him  appoint  some  of 
the  Commanders  of  the  garrisons,  say  Detroit,  Niagara,  &c. 
to  meet  on  the  part  of  the  British,  to  draw  a  line  that  shall 
be  deemed  right  and  reasonable  between  the  Americans  and 
Indians,  and  have  the  treaty  guaranteed  to  the  Indians  by 
the  British.  I  spurned  at  the  idea,  and  told  Col.  Butler, 
that  it  was  my  wish,  whenever  Americans  became  so  con- 
temptible, that  the  whole  country  might  be  annihilated. 

I  visited  the  great  curiosity,  the  falls,  and  must  refer  you 
to  Mr.  Ellicott's  account  of  them  in  the  Columbian  Maga- 
zine for  June,  1790. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  393 

I  cannot  help  being  of  opinion  that  Indians  (or  what 
are  called  Redmen)  never  were  intended  to  live  in  a  state 
of  civil  society.  There  never  was,  I  believe,  an  instance  of 
an  Indian  forsaking  his  habits  and  savage  manners,  any 
more  than  a  bear  his  ferocity. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Kirkland,  who  acts  as  missionary  among 
the  Oneidas,  has  taken  all  the  pains  that  a  man  can  take, 
but  his  whole  flock  are  Indians  still,  and  like  the  bear  which 
you  can  muffle  and  lead  out  to  dance  to  the  sound  of  musick, 
becomes  again  a  bear  when  his  muffler  is  removed  and  the 
musick  ceases.  The  Indians  will  attend  publick  worship 
and  sing  extremely  well,  following  Mr.  Kirkland's  notes ; 
but  whenever  the  service  is  over,  they  wrap  themselves  in 
their  blankets,  and  either  stand  like  cattle  on  the  sunny  side 
of  a  house,  or  lie  before  a  fire.  This  is  their  mode  of 
passing  life:  even  the  bold  energy  of  their  forefathers, 
which  was  conspicuous  in  the  chace,  is  unstrung  in  their 
descendants,  and  instead  of  sliding  to  the  grave  "like  a 
shock  of  corn  in  its  full  ear"  they  become  ripe  for  it  in 
youth,  and  often  find  it  by  the  most  disgraceful  means. 


BENJAMIN  SMITH  BARTON,  1798. 

Benjamin  Smith  Barton,  professor  of  Materia  Medica, 
Natural  History  and  Botany  in  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, visited  Niagara  Falls  in  1798.  He  published  the 
following  account  in  the  Philadelphia  Medical  and  Physical 
Journal  in  1804.  His  pseudo-scientific  observations  on 
the  recession  of  the  falls,  feeble  at  best,  were  controverted 
by  Felix  Robertson  of  Tennessee,  in  a  letter  to  the  editor  of 
the  Journal,  dated  Philadelphia,  Feb.  9,  1805. 

The  falls  are  formed  by  a  general  descent  of  the  country 
between  Lake  Erie  and  Lake  Ontario  of  about  300  feet,  the 
slope  of  which  is  generally  very  steep,  and,  in  many  places, 
almost  perpendicular.  This  general  description  of  the 


394  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY    VISITORS. 

country  is  observable  for  about  100  miles  to  the  east  and 
above  200  miles  to  the  west,  or  rather  northwest,  of  the 
falls. 

The  slope  is  formed  by  horizontal  strata  of  stone,  a  great 
part  of  which  is  limestone.  At  Fort  Erie,  which  is  20  miles 
above  the  cataract,  the  current  is  sometimes  so  strong  that 
it  is  impossible  to  cross  the  river  in  the  ferry-boat.  Pro- 
ceeding downwards,  the  rapidity  of  the  stream  increases. 
It  may,  however,  generally  be  crossed  by  hard  rowing  in  a 
boat  opposite  to  the  mouth  of  Chippewa  Creek.  As  we 
rowed  along  the  St.  Lawrence,  from  Fort  Erie  on  the 
Canadian  side,  we  heard  the  sound  of  the  falls  at  a  distance 
of  ten  miles,  the  wind  was  northeast  and  the  weather  clear. 
Had  it  been  northwest,  we  should  have  heard  it  at  a  much 
greater  distance.  In  heavy  weather,  and  with  a  fair  wind, 
the  sound  is  sometimes  heard  40  or  50  miles. 

The  rapids,  or  first  falls,  begin  about  one-half  mile 
above  the  great  cataract.  In  one  instance  has  a  man  been 
saved  who  had  been  carried  down  to  them.  His  canoe  was 
overturned,  he  retained  his  fast  hold  of  it,  and  it  very  provi- 
dentially fastened  itself  to  the  uppermost  rock.  Some 
people  on  shore,  seeing  this,  ventured  to  his  assistance  and 
saved  his  life  at  the  risk  of  their  own. 

As  we  approached  the  falls  the  first  time,  the  sun  was 
low  in  the  west,  which  gave  us  an  opportunity  of  viewing 
the  beautiful  rainbow  which  is  occasioned  by  the  refraction 
of  his  rays  on  the  cloud  or  fog  that  is  perpetually  arising 
from  them.  We  afterwards  found  that  the  whole  phen- 
omenon is  never  viewed  to  so  much  advantage  from  the 
Canada  side  as  on  a  clear  evening.  The  vast  fog  ascending 
from  the  grand  cataract  being  in  constant  agitation,  appears 
like  the  steam  of  an  immense  boiling  caldron.  In  summer 
it  moistens  the  neighboring  meadows,  and  in  winter,  falling 
upon  the  trees,  it  congeals  and  produces  a  most  beautiful 
crystaline  appearance.  The  view  of  this  fog  at  a  distance, 
which,  when  the  cause  of  it  is  known  is  in  itself  a  singular 
phenomenon,  fills  the  mind  with  awful  expectation,  which 
on  a  nearer  approach  can  never  end  in  disappointment. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  395 

The  first  sight  of  the  falls  arrests  the  senses  in  silent 
admiration.  Their  various  hues  arising  from  the  depth; 
the  descent  and  the  agitation  of  the  water  and  the  reflection 
of  the  sunbeams  upon  them ;  their  great  height ;  their  posi- 
tion between  lofty  rocks  and  their  roaring  noise,  altogether 
render  them  an  unparalleled  display  of  Nature's  grandeur. 
But  what  chiefly  distinguishes  them  and  gives  them  a 
majesty  incomparably  superior  to  anything  of  the  kind  in 
the  known  world,  is  the  vast  body  of  water  which  they 
precipitate  into  an  immense  abyss. 

The  St.  Lawrence  is  one  of  the  greatest  rivers  of 
America.  It  is  very  deep  and  about  742  yards  wide  at  the 
Falls.  The  perpendicular  descent  there  is  about  140  feet 
down  to  the  level  of  the  water  below.  How  far  the  water 
rushes  downward  still  further  within  the  chasm  underneath 
is  uncertain.  It  falls  58  feet  within  the  last  few  miles  above 
the  falls,  which  adds  to  the  force  and  velocity  of  the 
cataract.  The  sound  occasioned  by  the  great  and  precipitate 
fall  of  such  a  vast  body  of  water  has  the  most  grand  effect 
that  can  be  conceived.  It  far  exceeds  in  solemnity  any  other 
sounds  produced  by  the  operation  of  nature.  It  is  only  at 
the  falls  that  the  force  of  that  figure  made  use  of  in  the 
book  of  Revelation  can  be  fully  felt:  "I  heard  a  voice  as 
the  voice  of  many  waters."  And  what  did  that  voice  say? 
It  proclaimed  aloud  as  if  all  Heaven  spoke  "Hallelujah, 
Hallalujah,  for  the  Lord  God  Omnipotent  reigneth."  This 
is  the  language  that  has  been  thundered  for  ages  from  the 
Falls  of  Niagara. 

Every  hour  of  the  day  and  every  change  of  the  weather 
varies  the  scenery  of  this  romantic,  this  magnificent  dis- 
play of  the  wonders  of  Nature,  comparable  with  which 
every  attempt  of  art  to  produce  the  sublime  sinks  into  utter 
insignificance.  The  first  day  that  we  spent  there,  the 
weather  was  clear,  the  next  day  it  became  cloudy  and  rained 
a  little.  As  we  were  desirous  to  enjoy  the  prospect  before 
us  from  every  possible  point  of  view,  we  went  down  the 
high  bank  below  the  cataract  into  the  immense  chasm  below, 


396  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY    VISITORS. 

from  thence  walked,  or  rather  climbed,  along  the  rocks  so 
near  the  cataract  till  it  appeared  ready  to  overwhelm  us. 

The  descent  though  steep  is  not  dangerous.  General 
Simcoe,  the  late  Governor  of  the  Province,  caused  a  ladder 
tc  be  fixed  in  the  most  perpendicular  part  of  it,  which  is  so 
safe  that  his  lady  ventured  to  go  down  it.  Below  the  air 
is,  in  some  places,  strongly  tainted  with  the  smell  of  dead 
fish,  which  lie  in  great  numbers  on  the  beach.  Every  creat- 
ure that  swims  down  the  rapids  is  instantly  hurried  to 
destruction.  We  had  seen  a  loon  a  little  above  them,  which 
was  unknowingly  approaching  swiftly  to  its  ruin.  Even 
birds  which  fly  above  them  are  frequently  impelled  down- 
wards by  the  strong  current  of  air,  as  their  shattered  frag- 
ments among  the  rocks  do  attest.  Perhaps  these  were  the 
fragments  of  water  fowl,  in  which  case  the  above  remark 
is  incorrect. 

When  the  river  is  low,  it  is  easy  to  walk  up  to  the  foot 
of  the  falls;  but  when  high,  one  has  to  climb  over  rocks 
and  piles  of  large  loose  stones  for  nearly  half  a  mile.  This 
last  was  the  case  when  we  were  there.  In  many  places  the 
impending  mass  of  stone  seemed  ready  to  fall  upon  us.  It 
is  known  that  the  falls  are  divided  into  the  greater  and 
lesser  fall  by  means  of  a  lofty  island  between  them.  At  the 
place  of  descent  we  were  nearly  opposite  to  the  lesser  fall, 
the  water  of  which  rushes  down  in  a  direction  nearly 
parallel  with  the  beach  we  walked  along.  They  are  again 
divided  into  two  very  unequal  falls,  the  least  of  which  prob- 
ably discharges  more  water  than  the  great  fall  of  the  Rhine 
in  Switzerland,  which  is  the  most  famous  waterfall  in 
Europe. 

We  now  approached  the  great  fall,  which  discharges  at 
least  four  times  as  much  water  as  the  two  lesser  ones  to- 
gether. It  is  nearly  in  the  form  of  a  horseshoe.  We  ob- 
served below,  what  is  imperceptible  above,  that  the  fall  is 
not  throughout  the  same  pitch.  In  the  hollow  of  it,  where 
the  greatest  body  of  water  descends,  the  rocks  seem  to  be 
considerably  worn  away.  We  cannot  however  subscribe  to 
the  opinion  that  the  cataract  was  formerly  at  the  northern 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY    VISITORS.  397 

side  of  the  slope  near  the  landing,  and  that  from  the  great 
length  of  time,  the  quantity  of  water  and  the  distance  which 
it  falls,  the  solid  stone  is  worn  away  for  about  9  miles  up 
the  river  towards  Lake  Erie. 

This  notion  seems  extravagant.  The  island  which 
separates  the  fall,  is  solid  rock  and  so  high  that  the  river 
can  never  have  run  over  it.  Its  bank  towards  the  falls  runs 
in  the  direction  with  them  and  at  the  same  time  does  not 
project  beyond  them,  as  would  surely  be  the  case  if  the 
whole  body  of  rocks,  from  which  the  water  descends,  was 
fast  wearing  away.  The  situation  and  appearance  of  the 
falls  is  exactly  the  same  as  described  and  delineated  by  the 
French  artist  160  years  ago ;  besides,  according  to  the  laws 
of  motion,  the  principal  pressure  of  the  water  here  must  be 
in  the  direction  in  which  it  moves,  and  consequently  not 
against  the  rocks  it  merely  flows  over  and  where  it  meets 
with  no  opposition.  There  is  less  probability  of  the  bottom 
wearing  away  here  than  in  any  other  river  of  equal  depth 
where  there  are  no  such  falls;  for  where  the  current  is  so 
very  strong  the  pressure  downwards  must  thereby  be  very 
considerably  diminished,  and  for  the  same  reason  the  water 
being  ejected  far  beyond  the  precipice  acts  with  little  force 
against  its  edge.  How,  then,  can  it  wear  or  bear  it  away  for 
miles  even  in  the  greatest  length  of  time?  If  the  solid  stone 
at  the  falls  had  been  carried  away,  at  so  monstrous  a  rate 
as  is  supposed  by  some,  it  might  be  expected  that  the  rapids 
would  in  length  of  time  become  smooth  or  vary  their  ap- 
pearance, which  has  not  been  observed  to  be  the  case. 

That  the  perpetual  descent  of  such  a  vast  body  of  water 
has  produced  an  immense  chasm  below  is  more  than  prob- 
able, and  that  where  the  greatest  quantity  of  it  falls,  the 
surface  of  the  rocks  may  in  great  length  of  time  have 
become  more  hollow  is  very  credible;  but  it  appears  diffi- 
cult for  us  to  conceive  that  in  any  one  period  an  immense 
bed  of  rock  should  have  been  so  completely  worn  away  for 
9  miles  that  no  vestige  should  be  left  of  them  and  the  falls 
exhibit  at  length  their  present  appearance.  An  old  Indian 
told  us  that  many  years  since  a  grey-headed  Chippewa  had 


398  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

said  to  him :  "The  white  people  believe  that  the  falls  were 
once  down  at  the  landing.  It  is  not  true.  They  were 
always  where  they  are  now.  So  we  have  heard  from  our 
forefathers."  We  are  led  thereby  to  conclude  that  the 
Niagara  Falls  received  their  present  singular  position 
at  ...  [so  in  original,  meaning,  perhaps,  Creation.] 

It  is  generally  supposed  because  the  assertion  has  fre- 
quently appeared  in  print  that  it  is  possible  to  go  behind  the 
descending  column  of  water  at  the  Falls  and  to  remain 
there  in  perfect  safety.  Conversation,  it  has  been  said,  may 
be  held  there  without  interruption  from  the  noise,  which  is 
less  there  than  at  a  considerable  distance.  People  who  live 
near  the  spot  have  daily  to  contradict  these  fables.  They 
have  themselves  been  repeatedly  as  far  as  possible  under 
the  falls  and  are  in  the  habit  of  conducting  strangers  there. 
Their  information  is,  therefore,  to  be  relied  on. 

Under  the  Table  Rock,  as  it  is  called,  from  a  part  of 
which  the  water  descends,  there  is,  it  is  true,  space  sufficient 
to  contain  a  great  number  of  people  in  perfect  safety.  But 
how  should  they  get  there?  Were  they  to  attempt  to  enter 
the  cavity  behind  the  fall,  the  very  current  of  air  (as  the 
guides  say)  even  were  the  stream  of  water  not  to  touch 
them,  would  deprive  them  of  life.  The  truth  is,  it  is  possible 
to  go  under,  that  is,  below  the  falls,  as  we  did,  but  not  to  go 
behind  them. 

The  motion  of  the  water  below  the  cataract  is,  as  may 
be  supposed,  extremely  wild  and  irregular,  and  it  remains 
so  down  to  the  landing.  As  far  as  the  fog  extends,  it  is 
impossible  to  judge  of  the  state  of  the  atmosphere  with 
respect  to  heat  and  cold.  In  summer  it  cools  it  and  in  winter 
renders  it  milder.  The  surrounding  country  on  the  Canada 
side  is  very  delightful,  affording  charming  situations  for 
pleasure  grounds  from  whence  the  falls  might  be  viewed  to 
advantage.  On  this  account,  as  well  as  for  the  sake  of 
trade,  the  land  here  will  probably,  at  some  future  period, 
sell  for  a  very  high  price.  It  is  at  present,  1798,  valued  at 
£10  an  acre. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS.  399 

CHARLES  WILLIAMSON,  1799. 

This  well-known  pioneer  of  the  Genesee  Valley  wrote  the 
following  brief  description  of  Niagara  in  1799. 

Should  curiosity  induce  you  to  visit  the  Falls  of  Niagara, 
you  will  proceed  from  Geneva  by  the  State  Road,  to  the 
Genesee  River,  which  you  will  cross  at  New  Hartford,  west 
of  which  you  will  find  the  country  settled  for  about  twelve 
miles ;  but  after  that,  for  about  sixty-five  miles,  to  Niagara 
River,  the  country  still  remains  a  wilderness.  This  road 
was  used  so  much  last  year  by  people  on  business,  or  by 
those  whom  curiosity  had  led  to  visit  the  Falls  of  Niagara, 
that  a  station  was  fixed  at  the  Big  Plains  to  shelter  trav- 
elers. At  this  place  there  are  two  roads  that  lead  to 
Niagara  River;  the  south  road  goes  by  Buffalo  Creek,  the 
other  by  Tonawandoe  Village  to  Queen's  Town  Landing. 

The  road  to  Buffalo  Creek  is  more  used  both  because  it 
is  better  and  because  it  commands  a  view  of  Lake  Erie; 
and  the  road  from  this  to  the  falls  is  along  the  banks  of 
Niagara  River,  a  very  interesting  ride.  The  river  is  in  no 
place  less  than  a  mile  over,  and  the  picture  is  enlivened  by  a 
variety  of  landscapes.  Niagara  River  is  the  only  outlet  of 
Lake  Superior,  and  all  these  immense  lakes  that  afford  from 
the  falls  an  uninterrupted  navigation  of  near  two  thousand 
miles  to  the  westward.  As  you  approach  Chippaway,  a 
military  station  two  miles  above  the  falls,  the  rapidity  of 
the  river  increases,  bounding  to  a  great  height  when  it 
meets  with  resistance  from  the  inequality  of  the  surface ; 
and  this  vast  body  of  water  at  last  washes  over  a  precipice 
of  one  hundred  and  seventy  feet.  The  falls  can  be  viewed 
from  several  different  places ;  but  they  are  seen  to  most  ad- 
vantage below.  You  can,  with  safety,  approach  the  very 
edge  of  the  fall,  and  may  even  go  some  distance  between 
the  sheet  of  falling  water  and  the  precipice ;  but  this  experi- 
ment requires  caution ;  the  footing  is  unequal  and  slippery ; 
and  blasts  of  condensed  air  rush  out  with  such  violence  as 
to  deprive  you  for  some  moments,  of  the  power  of  breath- 
ing. From  the  falls  to  Queenstown,  the  nearest  place  to 


400  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY   VISITORS. 

which  shipping  approach  the  falls,  the  roar  is  confined 
within  a  chasm  in  the  rocks,  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
deep,  and  to  all  appearance  cut  by  the  force  of  the  water. 


Among  other  Eighteenth  century  accounts,  far  better 
known,  are  the  descriptive  pages  in  the  well-known  works 
of  Isaac  Weld  (1796)  and  the  Duke  Rochefoucault  Lian- 
court  (1795).  Their  books  are  in  many  libraries.  John 
Cosens  Ogden,  who  was  on  the  Niagara  in  1794,  makes 
many  useful  notes  in  his  "Tour,"  but  does  not  indulge  in 
description.  An  earlier  writer  of  wide  fame  was  Major 
Robert  Rogers,  who  passed  up  the  Niagara  in  October, 
1760.  In  his  "Concise  Account  of  North  America"  (Lon- 
don, 1765),  he  gives  a  description  of  Niagara  Falls;  but 
his  book  is  not  so  rare  as  to  make  advisable  the  reprinting 
of  his  pages.  Much  of  the  greatest  importance  was  written 
about  Niagara,  and  from  the  vicinity  of  Niagara,  during 
and  after  the  campaign  of  1759;  as  for  instance  the  letters 
of  Charles  Lee,  afterwards  Washington's  major-general  of 
treasonable  fame;  but  these  really  belong  to  a  different 
phase  of  our  regional  history. 

Numerous  accounts  of  Niagara  may  be  found  in 
Eighteenth-century  compilations  of  travels,  but  they  are 
either  taken  bodily  from  one  or  another  of  the  accounts 
here  given — usually  from  Hennepin,  La  Hontan,  Kalm  or 
Ellicott — or  they  are  based  on  those  narratives,  and  re- 
written by  book-makers  who  never  saw  the  Falls. 

The  foregoing  collection  of  rare  and  little-known  nar- 
ratives of  personal  experience  at  Niagara  well  shows  the 
gradual  acquisition  of  correct  information,  and  the  difficul- 
ties under  which  it  was  gathered,  prior  to  the  era  of  good 
roads  and  means  of  travel,  of  bridges  and  stairs  and  hotels. 
Niagara,  even  to  the  close  of  the  Eightenth  century,  was  a 
Niagara  of  the  wilderness. 


APPENDIX 


PROCEEDINGS 


OF  THE 


BUFFALO  HISTORICAL 
SOCIETY 

1911 


OFFICERS   OF    THE 

BUFFALO    HISTORICAL    SOCIETY 

1911 


HONORARY  PRESIDENT ANDREW  LANGDON 

PRESIDENT : HON.  HENRY  W.  HILL 

V!CE-PRESIDENT CHARLES  R.  WILSON 

SECRETARY-TREASURER FRANK  H.  SEVERANCE 

BOARD  OF  MANAGERS 

Term  expiring  January,  1912. 

ALBERT  H.  BRIGGS,  M.  D.,  LEE  H.  SMITH,  M.  D., 

R.  R.  HEFFORD,  WILLIS  O.  CHAPIN, 

LORAN  L.  LEWIS,  JR. 

Term  expiring  January,  1913. 

ROBERT  W.  DAY,  HENRY  A.  RICHMOND, 

HUGH  KENNEDY,  CHARLES  W.  GOODYEAR,* 

G.  BARRETT  RICH. 

Term  expiring  January,  1914. 

HON.  HENRY  W.  HILL,  HENRY  R.  ROWLAND. 

J.  N.  LARNED,  CHARLES  R.  WILSON, 

J.  J.  MCWILLIAMS. 


ANDREW  LANGDON, 
FRANK  H.  SEVERANCE, 


Term  expiring  January,  1915. 

JAMES  SWEENEY, 
GEORGE  A.  STRINGER, 
OGDEN  P.  LETCHWORTH.! 


The  Mayor  of  Buffalo,  the  Corporation  Counsel,  the  Comptroller,  Superin- 
tendent of  Education,  President  of  the  Board  of  Park  Commissioners,  and 
President  of  the  Common  Council,  are  also  ex-officio  members  of  the  Board  of 
Managers  of  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society. 


*Died,  April  16,  1911. 
t  Resigned. 


LIST  OF  THE 

PRESIDENTS  OF  THE  SOCIETY 

FROM   ITS  ORGANIZATION  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME. 


*MlLLARD   FlLLMORE 1862   to    1867 

*HENRY  W.  ROGERS, 1868 

*REV.  ALBERT  T.  CHESTER,  D.  D., 1869 

*ORSAMUS  H.  MARSHALL, 1870 

*HoN.  NATHAN  K.  HALL, 1871 

*WILLIAM  H.  GREENE, 1872 

*ORLANDO  ALLEN, 1873 

"•OLIVER  G.  STEELE, 1874 

*HON.  JAMES  SHELDON, 1875  and  1886 

*WILLIAM  C.  BRYANT, 1876 

*CAPT.  E.  P.  DORR, 1877 

*HON.  WILLIAM  P.  LETCHWORTH, 1878 

WILLIAM  H.  H.  NEWMAN, 1879  and  1885 

*HoN.  ELIAS  S.  HAWLEY, 1880 

*HoN.  JAMES  M.  SMITH, 1881 

*WILLIAM  HODGE, 1882 

*WILLIAM  DANA  FOBES, 1883  and  1884 

*EMMOR  HAINES, 1887 

*JAMES  TILLINGHAST, 1888 

*WILLIAM  K.  ALLEN, 1889 

*GEORGE  S.  HAZARD, 1890  and  1892 

*JOSEPH  C.  GREENE,  M.  D., 1891 

*JULIUS  H.  DAWES, 1893 

ANDREW  LANGDON, 1894  to  1909 

HON.  HENRY  W.  HILL, 1910  and  1911 

*  Deceased. 


APPENDIX 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE 

BUFFALO    HISTORICAL    SOCIETY 


FORTY-NINTH   ANNUAL    MEETING. 

The  forty-ninth  annual  meeting  of  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society 
was  held  at  the  Historical  Building,  Tuesday  evening,  January  10, 
191 1.  President  Henry  W.  Hill  presided;  in  the  absence  of  the 
secretary,  Mr.  George  A.  Stringer  was  made  secretary  pro  tern.  The 
minutes  of  the  last  annual  meeting  were  read;  reports  of  officers 
submitted;  and  Messrs.  Andrew  Langdon,  O.  P.  Letchworth,  Frank 
H.  Severance,  George  A.  Stringer  and  James  Sweeney  were  reflected 
as  members  of  the  Board  of  Managers  for  the  ensuing  four  years. 
President  Hill  delivered  the  annual  address  of  the  president,  as  fol- 
lows: 

THE  PRESIDENT'S  ADDRESS. 

Members  of  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society,  Ladies  and  Gentle- 
men: The  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society 
with  pleasure  bid  you  welcome  to  this  forty-ninth  annual  meeting 
and  to  assure  you  that  they  deeply  appreciate  your  continued  interest 
in  its  welfare  and  participation  in  its  activities. 

From  its  organization  in  1862,  it  has  been  supported  by  many  of 
Buffalo's  distinguished  citizens  and  finally  established  on  a  perma- 
nent basis  through  the  liberality  of  the  taxpayers  of  this  city.  In 
this  respect  it  occupies  a  unique  position  among  the  historical  so- 
cieties of  the  country,  for  there  are  few  that  are  so  sustained.  In 
return,  however,  its  doors  are  kept  open  to  the  public  and  its 
archives  and  collections  are  daily  consulted  by  the  teachers,  stu- 
dents and  citizens  of  Buffalo  as  well  as  by  writers  of  this  and  other 
states,  interested  in  historical  research.  Inquiries  come  frequently 
from  within  and  without  the  state  for  information  in  relation  to 

405 


406  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

genealogies  and  other  matters  of  an  historical  nature,  that  can  be 
found  nowhere  else  so  readily  as  in  the  archives  of  this  society.  We 
have  a  large  and  valuable  collection,  which  is  being  yearly  increased, 
of  books,  pamphlets,  papers,  manuscripts,  letters,  coins,  portraits, 
Indian  relics  and  other  original  data  relating  to  the  people  and  in- 
stitutions of  Western  New  York  and  especially  of  the  city  of  Buf- 
falo. For  several  years  this  Society  has  maintained  a  course  of 
popular  lectures  free  to  the  public,  which  have  brought  it  into  popu- 
lar favor  with  all  classes  of  our  citizens.  These  have  included  his- 
torical, biographical,  patriotic  and  educational  subjects,  several  of 
which  were  prepared  and  given  by  our  secretary,  Frank  H. 
Severance;  and  others  were  given  by  professional  men  and  others 
well  qualified  to  speak  on  their  respective  subjects.  These  weekly 
afternoon  lectures  have  been  attended  by  hundreds  of  our  citizens, 
including  a  large  number  of  young  people  interested  in  such  mat- 
ters. It  has  also  maintained  a  formal  course  of  lectures,  open  to  the 
members  of  the  Society.  The  year's  entertainments  have  included 
the  tollowing: 

Jan.  20.  "An  Evening  with  Dickens,"  by  E.  E.  Williamson,  To- 
ronto. 

Feb.    6.    "Forts  on  the  Niagara  Frontier,"  by  Hon.  Peter  A.  Porter. 

Feb.  13.    "Lincoln."    Address  by  Rev.  John  W.  Ross. 

Feb.  20.  "Western  New  York  in  the  Days  of  Washington,"  by 
Frank  H.  Severance. 

Feb.  24.  "Emerson  and  His  Friends  at  Concord,"  by  Mrs.  Mary  K. 
Babbitt,  Concord,  Mass. 

Feb.  27.  "The  Story  of  Seneca  Park,  the  old  Indian  burial  ground 
at  South  Buffalo,"  by  Frank  H.  Severance. 

Mar.  13.    "The  City  of  Buffalo,"  by  John  Sayles. 

Mar.  20.  "The  Career  of  General  Philip  Sheridan,1'  by  James  Har- 
mon, 

Mar.  27.  "The  First  Easter  Observance  on  the  Niagara,"  by  Frank 
H.  Severance. 

Mar.  28.  Illustrated  lecture  on  "Arabia,''  by  Dr.  Edgar  J.  Banks, 
New  York  City. 

May  8.  "Some  Facts  about  Father  Hennepin,"  by  Frank  H.  Sever- 
ance. 

May  31  -  June  2.  Meetings  of  the  American  Association  of  Mu- 
seums. 

Jun.  6.  "The  Story  of  Hingham  Plantation,"  by  Rev.  Louis  C. 
Cornish,  Hingham,  Mass. 

Oct.  25.  Illustrated  lecture,  "The  League  of  the  Five  Nations,"  by 
Arthur  C.  Parker,  New  York  State  Archaeologist. 

Nov.  10.  "The  Governors  of  New  York,"  by  Hon.  Charles  Z.  Lin- 
coln. 


BUFFALO   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  407 

Nov.  17.     Illustrated  lecture,  "Holidaying  in  Picturesque  Brittany, ' 

by  Frank  Yeigh,  Toronto. 
Dec.  12.     Illustrated    lecture,    "The    Evolution    of    our    Flag,"    by 

Charles  Wm.  Burrows,  Cleveland,  O. 

These  indicate  to  some  extent  the  scope  and  popularity  of  enter- 
tainments offered  our  members  during  the  past  year.  Others  fully 
as  entertaining  are  to  follow.  All  these  free,  as  well  as  the  formal 
lectures,  together  with  its  Publications,  of  which  I  shall  speak  later, 
have  given  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society  a  unique  position  in  the 
intellectual  life  of  this  city.  It  may  be  said  that  its  sphere  of  use- 
fulness is  somewhat  extended  beyond  that  contemplated  by  its  foun- 
ders, but  we  confidently  believe,  it  is  being  better  understood  and 
that  it  is  steadily  growing  in  popular  favor,  if  we  may  judge  from 
the  attendance  at  the  public  exercises  and  the  number  of  the  So- 
ciety's daily  visitors. 

The  original  Certificate  of  Incorporation,  filed  in  the  office  of  the 
Secretary  of  State  on  January  10,  1863,  defined  its  purposes  to  be  "to 
discover,  procure  and  preserve  whatever  may  relate  to  the  history 
of  Western  New  York  in  general  and  the  City  of  Buffalo  in  par- 
ticular, and  to  gather  statistics  of  the  commerce,  manufactures  and 
business  of  the  lake  region,  and  those  portions  of  the  West,  that  are 
intimately  connected  with  the  interests  of  Buffalo." 

In  the  federal,  state  and  other  reports  annually  received  and 
catalogued  in  our  library  may  be  found  the  statistical  information  of 
the  commerce,  manufactures  and  business  of  the  lake  region,  so 
that  it  is  no  longer  necessary  to  make  special  compilation  of  those 
data,  although  it  is  important  to  see  to  it  that  all  such  reports  are 
securely  deposited  in  the  library,  as  is  now  being  done  and  as  has 
been  done  since  we  came  into  possession  of  this  spacious  building. 

If  we  have  enlarged  the  domain  of  this  Society,  still  we  have 
faithfully  adhered  to  the  objects  for  which  it  was  founded,  as  here- 
inbefore stated,  and  as  somewhat  elaborated  by  the  Honorable  Mil- 
lard  Fillmore  in  his  first  inaugural  address  as  the  first  president  of 
this  Society,  at  the  American  Hotel  in  this  city,  on  July  I,  1862.  He 
said :  "Its  object  is  not  to  teach  but  to  preserve  history.  And  it  is 
certainly  a  grateful  task  to  commemorate  the  virtues  of  those  who 
have  built  up  this  city  and  its  noble  institutions  and  to  be  sure  that 
their  names  are  not  forgotten.  .  .  .  Now  is  the  time  to  photograph 
their  character  in  all  lineaments  of  active  life,  that  the  generations 
who  shall  come  after  us  may  see  them  as  we  have  seen  them,  and  be 
stimulated  to  emulate  their  virtues  and  if  possible  rival  their  enter- 
prise." In  conclusion,  he  said :  "Finally,  let  this  institution  be  the 
grand  repository  of  everything  collected  to  throw  light  on  our  his- 


408  PROCEEDINGS  OF   THE 

tory.  Books,  newspapers,  letters,  pamphlets,  maps,  medals  and  relics 
of  every  description  should  be  deposited  here,  and  let  our  citizens 
unite  heart  and  hand  in  building  up  this  Society,  which,  while  it  does 
justice  to  the  dead,  reflects  honor  upon  the  living." 

The  prominent  part  taken  by  this  Society  on  its  own  inftiative 
and  in  cooperation  with  such  other  organizations  as  the  Niagara 
Frontier  Landmarks  Association  and  the  Historic  Sites  Commission 
in  discovering  and  marking  historic  places  in  Western  New  York 
and  in  preserving  a  record  of  the  important  events  occurring  in  con- 
nection therewith  is  in  fulfillment  of  the  declared  purposes  that  led 
to  the  foundation  of  this  Society.  Its  large  and  varied  historical 
collections  have  been  made  also  in  fulfillment  of  its  purposes  by  its 
friends,  including  many  large  donors  and  the  successive  boards  of 
managers,  who  have  administered  its  affairs  from  its  organization. 
President  Fillmore's  advice  that  it  be  a  repository  of  everything  that 
might  throw  light  on  our  history  has  been  very  generously  followed. 
In  this  connection,  and  bearing  in  mind  the  statement  of  President 
Fillmore  as  to  the  functions  of  this  Society  that  "while  it  does  jus- 
tice to  the  dead,  reflects  honor  upon  the  living,"  I  may  be  permitted 
to  digress  from  the  current  of  my  remarks  long  enough  to  say  a  few 
words  in  justice  to  two  of  our  members,  viz.,  Mr.  Langdon  and  Mr. 
Severance,  both  of  whom  are  absent  tonight.  Mr.  Andrew  Langdon 
was  president  of  this  Society  for  sixteen  consecutive  years,  from 
1804  to  1909,  inclusive,  a  period  equalling  those  of  President  Fill  • 
more,  who  presided  over  the  Society  for  five  years,  from  1862  to 
1867,  and  Hon.  James  Sheldon,  who  presided  over  it  for  eleven 
years,  from  1875  to  1886,  inclusive,  the  two  other  longest  terms  of 
any  of  its  twenty-five  presidents.  But  length  of  service  is  not  alone 
the  measure  of  his  contributions  to  this  Society.  As  chairman  of  the 
building  committee  he  brought  about  the  aggregation  of  three  funds 
that  made  it  possible  to  build  this  beautiful  building  designed  by  the 
architect,  Mr.  George  Gary  of  Buffalo,  of  marble  rather  than  of 
brick — after  the  manner  of  Augustus,  of  whom  it  has  been  said 
"Urbem  lateritiam  invenit,  marmoriam  reliquit."  Mr.  Langdon  was 
the  donor  of  the  beautiful  solid  bronze  gates,  designed  by  the  sculp- 
tor R.  Hinton  Perry  and  embellished  with  female  figures  represent- 
ing Ethnology,  History,  Science  and  Art.  He  presented  to  this  So- 
ciety the  two  fifteenth  century  Medicean  bronze  candelabra  that 
adorn  and  at  night  light  the  northwesterly  entrance  of  this  b'uilding. 
He  also  presented  to  the  Society  the  Washington  bust  of  Carrara 
marble,  the  work  of  the  Florentine  sculptor  Pugi;  and  the  antique 
bust  of  the  Roman  Emperor  Nero  He  presented  to  the  city  the 
bronze  replica  of  the  superb  statue  of  David  by  Michael  Angelo 


BUFFALO   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY.  409 

within  view  from  the  portico  of  this  building.  He  was  the  chair- 
man of  the  committee  that  secured  for  us  the  Julius  H.  Francis  col- 
lection and  the  Lincoln  statue,  the  work  of  the  sculptor,  Charles  H. 
Niehaus.  His  gifts  have  been  many  and  his  interest  in  this  Society 
has  been  untiring.  Much  pertaining  to  this  Society  is  due  to  his 
keen  appreciation  of  the  ideals  in  architecture,  sculpture,  painting 
and  landscape  gardening,  for  it  will  be  remembered  that  he  was  for 
years  one  of  our  efficient  Park  Commissioners.  In  addition  to  all 
these  and  what  is  quite  as  important,  is  that  during  his  long  service 
as  president  of  this  Society,  he  devoted  his  time  unsparingly  to  its 
interests  and  the  extension  of  its  usefulness  to  the  people  of  this 
city.  His  name  will  ever  be  associated  with  that  of  President  Fill- 
more  as  one  of  the  Society's  most  helpful  friends  and  most  liberal 
benefactors. 

[President  Hill  here  spoke  appreciatively  of  the  work  of  the 
Secretary,  who  had  been  granted  a  needed  leave  of  absence.] 

The  founders  of  this  Society,  appreciating  Buffalo's  commercial 
importance  at  the  foot  of  the  Great  Lakes,  whose  annual  waterborne 
tonnage  exceeds  that  of  all  the  Atlantic  seaports,  laid  emphasis  upon 
the  compilation  and  preservation  of  statistics  relating  to  that  subject. 
The  summary  of  the  tonnage  of  the  port  of  Buffalo  for  1910  was  as 
follows : 

Vessels  Entered.  No.  Tonnage. 

Coastwise   2,874  6,615,912 

American  vessels  in  foreign  trade  765  507,741 

Foreign  vessels  in  foreign  trade 76  53,i86 


Totals    3,715  7,176,839 

Vessels  Cleared.  No.  Tonnage. 

Coastwise    2,992  6,989,116 

American  vessels  in  foreign  trade  699  334,012 

Foreign  vessels  in  foreign  trade 62  46,534 


Totals    3,753         7,369,662 

The  total  grain  receipts,  including  flour  in  its  equivalent  of  grain 
and  flaxseed,  were  138,229,075  bushels.  The  receipts  of  iron  ore 
were  less  than  in  1909,  but  of  pig  iron  greater  by  51,000  tons.  The 
lumber  imports  were  177,136,000  feet  at  Buffalo  and  the  Tonawandas. 
The  total  shipments  were  of  coal  3,639,368  tons,  of  cement  2,895,510 
barrels,  of  salt  469,509  barrels,  of  sugar  1,179,070  pounds.  The  total 
tonnage  received  on  the  Erie  canal  was  649,471  tons,  valued  at 
$18,542,775,  and  the  total  shipments  by  the  Erie  canal  were  885,235 
tons,  valued  at  $16,912,769. 


410  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

The  total  tonnage  of  the  port  of  Buffalo  for  the  year  1910  can- 
not now  be  given,  but  it  was  somewhat  smaller  than  it  was  in  1909, 
owing  to  inactivity  of  lake  commerce  during  the  summer  months. 

The  arrival  and  departure  of  vessels  by  lake  and  canal  and  the 
tonnage  handled  at  the  port  of  Buffalo,  as  compiled  by  Mr.  George 
E.  Pierce,  were  as  follows : 

Lake  Canal 


Year  Number           Tons  Number  Tons 

1903  8,727  11,586,719  6,974  1.324,216 

1904  7,375  10,783,080  5,132  988,725 

1905  7,950  12,090,153  4,902             985,861 

1906  8,294  13,876,759  5,666  1,769,919 

1907  ••• 8,205  14,578,233  5,014  1,942,455 

1008  6,191  12,003,968  4,482  1,621,527 

1909  6,659  14,145,013  4,230  1,568,615 

The  total  tonnage  of  the  port  of  Buffalo  during  the  season  of 
navigation  in  1909,  was  15,713,628  tons  and  exceeded  the  tonnage  of 
any  other  port  on  the  Great  Lakes,  except  that  of  the  port  of  Duluth, 
which  is  principally  a  shipping  port  of  iron  ore  and  grain,  whereas 
Buffalo  is  both  a  shipping  and  receiving  port  for  various  classes  of 
freights.  Duluth  at  the  upper  end  and  Buffalo  at  the  lower  end  of 
the  Great  Lakes  in  1909,  had  the  largest  tonnage  of  any  fresh-water 
ports  in  the  world,  and  they  are  likely  to  maintain  that  commercial 
rank  for  years  to  come. 

The  founders  of  this  Society  wisely  inserted,  therefore,  in  its 
charter  a  provision  that  record  be  kept  of  the  commerce  of  the  Lake 
region,  which  for  three-fourths  of  a  century  has  been  the  principal 
business  of  the  people  of  Buffalo  and  has  made  it  one  of  the  large 
inland  ports  of  the  world. 

The  commerce  of  the  Great  Lakes  has  been  largely  promoted  by 
the  Erie  canal,  extending  from  Buffalo  to  the  Hudson  river,  thereby 
affording  water  inter-communication  between  these  vast  commerce- 
bearing  natural  bodies  of  water.  Intimately  associated  historically 
with  the  growth  of  Buffalo,  therefore,  are  the  waterways  of  this 
state,  the  story  of  whose  construction,  enlargement  and  utilization 
was  thought  worthy  of  preservation  and  is  told  in  the  three  latest 
volumes  of  the  Society's  Publications  Some  of  the  contributors  to 
these  volumes  were  active  participants  in  enlarging  upon  the  policy, 
that  had  its  inception  in  the  Colonial  era  and  its  conclusion  in  the 
construction  of  the  Barge  canal  system  now  in  progress.  These  Pub- 
lications have  had  a  wide  sale  and  form  an  important  part  of  the 
history  of  Buffalo  as  well  as  of  the  State  of  New  York. 


BUFFALO   HISTORICAL  SOCIETY.  411 

We  still  have  many  unpublished  manuscripts,  that  may,  in  our 
future  publications,  be  given  to  the  world.  These  will  bring  this 
Society  into  still  closer  relation  with  the  historical  societies  of  the 
state  and  nation,  of  which  there  are  many  now  crowding  forward 
in  their  several  fields  of  original  investigation.  Among  such  may 
be  mentioned  the  New  York  State  Historical  Association,  presided 
over  by  our  former  esteemed  townsman  and  former  State  Comp- 
troller, the  Honorable  James  A.  Roberts.  The  annual  proceedings 
of  that  organization  are  being  published  in  book  form  and  thus  add- 
ing materially  to  the  wealth  of  Americana  relating  to  the  discovery, 
conquest,  settlement,  and  institutions  of  the  domain  of  New  York. 
That  organization  is  doing  important  work.  Its  tour  of  Lake  Cham- 
plain  last  fall  and  the  scholarly  papers  and  addresses  of  its  distin- 
guished guests  on  that  occasion  will  be  read  with  interest  by  all  stu- 
dents of  the  history  of  the  Champlain  valley.  Our  secretary,  Mr. 
Severance,  had  part  in  that  tour  of  the  lake  and  of  inspection  of  its 
historic  forts,  of  which  he  has  made  report. 

During  the  year  1009.  two  great  historic  celebrations  were  held 
in  this  state.  There  were  the  Lake  Champlain  Tercentenary  cele- 
bration, from  July  4th  to  July  gth,  and  the  Hudson-Fulton  celebra- 
tion, from  September  25th  to  October  gth.  The  State  made  liberal 
appropriations  for  both  these  celebrations  and  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment made  an  appropriation  and  formally  participated  in  the  former. 
In  the  Lake  Champlain  Tercentenary  celebration  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment was  represented  by  President  William  H.  Taft  and  its 
Secretary  of  War,  the  Honorable  Jacob  M.  Dickinson.  The  Re- 
public of  France  was  represented  by  its  Ambassador,  the  Hon.  J.  J. 
Jusserand;  the  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain,  by  its  Ambassador,  the 
Right  Honorable  James  Bryce;  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  by  its 
Postmaster-General,  Rudolphe  Lemieux ;  the  Province  of  Quebec 
by  its  Premier,  Sir  Lomer  Gouin ;  and  the  states  of  New  York  and 
Vermont  by  their  respective  Governors  and  other  officials,  and  many 
distinguished  citizens. 

The  Hudson-Fulton  celebration  was  largely  the  work  of  the  en- 
terprising and  patriotic  citizens  of  New  York  City,  who  threw  open 
the  gates  of  the  metropolis  to  the  distinguished  official  guests  of 
many  foreign  nations.  The  official  reports  of  the  two  commissions 
having  these  historical  celebrations  in  charge,  are  now  in  press  and 
will  be  read  with  deep  interest  by  students  of  the  history  of  this 
state. 

As  secretary  of  the  New  York-Lake  Champlain  Tercentenary 
Commission,  and  by  the  authority  of  that  commission,  I  prepared 
the  literary  programme  of  exercises  that  were  given  in  the  State  of 


412  PROCEEDINGS  OF   THE 

New  York,  which  comprised  historical  and  other  addresses,  poems 
and  Indian  pageants  at  Crown  Point,  Ticonderoga  and  Plattsburgh. 
The  Vermont-Lake  Champlain  Commission  had  similar  exercises  at 
Burlington  and  Isle  la  Motte.  All  the  addresses  and  poems  are  in- 
cluded in  full  in  the  Report  of  the  New  York  -  Lake  Champlain  Ter- 
centenary Commission,  and  the  Report  of  the  Vermont  Commission 
includes  all  addresses  and  poems  at  Burlington  and  Isle  la  Motte 
and  something  of  the  local  exercises  at  Vergennes,  Swanton  and  at 
other  places  in  Vermont. 

The  Vermont  Commissioners  in  their  official  report  say  that  the 
"Tercentenary  has  permanently  enriched  American  literature  in  the 
notable  addresses  and  poems  prepared  for  the  occasion.  It  has 
added  largely  to  our  knowledge  of  early  history  of  this  region,  which 
we  inhabit.  It  has  increased  cur  pride  in  the  land  we  love,  and  has 
heightened  our  patriotism."  The  press  of  the  country  quite  generally 
published  reports  of  the  exercises  and  in  many  instances  gave  copious 
excerpts  of  the  addresses  and  poems. 

The  Hudson-Fulton  celebration  was  conducted  on  a  much  larger 
scale  than  the  Lake  Champlain  celebration,  but  after  entirely  dif- 
ferent plans.  The  growth  and  prestige  of  the  emporium  of  the 
Western  Hemisphere  could  not  well  be  more  forcefully  and  bril- 
liantly represented  than  it  was  on  that  occasion  to  the  guests  from 
many  nations,  who  came  to  do  honor  to  New  York.  The  history  of 
the  entire  period,  from  the  discovery  of  the  Hudson  to  the  building 
of  the  last  great  bridge  over  the  East  river  and  the  great  subway 
from  the  Bronx  to  Brooklyn,  was  fittingly  reproduced  in  historic 
and  naval  parades,  aquatic  pageants,  electric  displays,  musical  fes- 
tivals, dramatic  exhibitions  and  literary  exercises  of  great  variety 
and  brilliancy.  These  will  be  fully  described  and  as  far  as  possible 
reproduced  in  the  final  report  of  that  commission,  now  in  press. 
The  foreign  guests  were  amazed  that  such  a  city,  with  world-wide 
commercial  relations,  had  arisen,  as  it  were,  like  Aphrodite  from  the 
foam  of  the  sea,  in  the  short  period  of  time  elapsing  since  Henry 
Hudson  sailed  the  Half-Moon  up  the  Hudson  in  September,  1609. 
Our  vice-president,  Mr.  Charles  R.  Wilson,  was  on  the  board  of 
directors  of  the  Hudson-Fulton  commission. 

In  both  these  historical  celebrations  prominence  was  given  to 
"pageantry,"  which  Percy  Mackay  defines  as  "poetry  for  the  masses." 
In  the  Indian  pageants  at  Lake  Champlain,  under  the  direction  of 
L.  O.  Armstrong  of  Montreal,  were  150  descendants  of  the  native 
tribes  occupying  the  Champlain  valley,  and  in  the  drama  founded 
on  such  records  as  are  extant  and  available,  there  enacted,  was  a 
representation  of  the  battle  of  Champlain  with  the  Iroquois ;  and 


BUFFALO   HISTORICAL  SOCIETY.  413 

the  formation  of  the  Iroquois  Confederacy.  No  one  who  was  for- 
tunate enough  to  witness  the  pageants  of  the  Quebec  Tercentenary, 
under  the  direction  of  that  Oxford  scholar  and  successful  pageant 
director,  Frank  Lascelles  of  London,  failed  to  appreciate  that  the 
realistic  presentation  in  the  open  air  on  the  Heights  of  Abraham,  of 
the  great  events  of  Canadian  history  and  of  the  Court  of  Henry  IV 
of  France,  made  a  deep  and  lasting  impression  on  the  thousands  in 
attendance. 

Pageantry  has  thus  been  employed  ever  since  "The  Canterbury 
Pilgrims,"  as  one  of  the  most  effective  means  of  impressing  historical 
facts  upon  the  masses,  who  may  not  take  the  time  to  read,  or  possess 
the  imagination  to  be  stirred,  if  they  were  to  read,  the  record  of  a 
nation  unillustrated  and  entirely  divorced  from  dramatic  art. 

On  January  25,  1910,  I  introduced  a  concurrent  resolution  in  the 
State  Senate,  authorizing  the  appointment  by  the  Governor  of  a 
commission  to  confer  with  similar  commissions  of  Ohio,  Pennsyl- 
vania, Michigan,  Illinois  and  Wisconsin  in  relation  to  the  Centennial 
celebration  of  the  victory  of  Commodore  Oliver  Hazard  Perry  on 
Lake  Erie,  September  10,  1813.  The  resolution  passed  the  Senate 
and  Assembly  and  the  Governor  appointed  as  members  of  that  Com- 
mission Messrs.  Ogden  P.  Letchworth  and  George  D.  Emerson  of 
Buffalo,  both  prominent  members  of  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society, 
and  Col.  John  T.  Mott  of  Oswego,  Dr.  Clinton  Bradford  Herrick  of 
Troy  and  Henry  Harmon  Noble  of  Essex,  N.  Y.  The  states  of 
Kentucky  and  Rhode  Island  have  also  appointed  commissioners,  and 
Indiana  and  Minnesota  are  expected  to  appoint  others,  soon. 

On  September  10,  1910,  a  meeting  was  held  of  the  commissioners 
of  the  eight  states  at  Put-in-Bay,  Ohio,  at  which  articles  of  associa- 
tion were  adopted,  the  first  section  of  which  reads  as  follows : 

"This  association  shall  be  known  as  the  Inter- State  Board  of  the 
Perry's  Victory  Centennial  Commissioners,  organized  for  the  pur- 
pose of  promoting  the  historical,  educational,  naval  and  military 
celebration  and  the  erection  of  the  proposed  Perry  memorial  at 
Put-in-Bay,  Ohio,  in  the  year  1913,  in  honor  of  the  one  hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  battle  of  Lake  Erie  and  of  the  Northwestern  cam- 
paign of  General  William  Henry  Harrison  in  the  War  of  1812,  which 
terminated  in  the  battle  of  the  Thames,  October  5,  1813." 

In  that  organization  Mr.  Letchworth  was  chosen  vice-presid«nt 
for  the  State  of  New  York. 

The  New  York  Commission  organized  on  November  2,  1910,  at 
Albany,  by  electing  Mr.  Letchworth  chairman  and  Mr.  Emerson 
secretary.  Application  has  been  made  to  Congress  for  an  appro- 
priation for  the  erection  of  a  memorial  at  Put-in-Bay  Island,  and 


414  PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE 

the  Committee  on  Industrial  Arts  and  Expositions  has  reported  fa- 
vorably thereon. 

It  is  possible  that  the  Perry  Centennial  Celebration  may  also  in- 
clude a  review  of  the  commerce  of  the  Great  Lakes,  which  has  ever 
been  and  still  is  the  chief  contributing  agency  in  the  building  up  of 
Buffalo.  Should  that  be  done,  the  people  of  the  city  and  of  Western 
New  York  might  very  properly  actively  participate  in  that  celebra- 
tion. 

Although  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society  was  not  formally  identi- 
fied with  either  the  Lake  Champlain  or  with  the  Hudson-Fulton 
Tercentenary  Commissions,  still  our  members  have  held  prominent 
official  positions  on  those  commissions,  and  were,  therefore,  to  a 
certain  extent  charged  with  the  responsibility  of  the  conduct  of 
those  celebrations.  That  relation  has  necessarily  brought  this  So- 
ciety into  close  touch  with  these  two  most  notable  historical  cele- 
brations which  have  ever  occurred  in  this  State,  and  which,  there- 
fore, I  have  considered  worthy  of  special  mention  on  this  occasion. 

These  have  extended  the  work  of  some  of  us  into  wider  fields 
of  historical  research  during  the  two  years  past,  but,  as  may  be  seen 
from  the  present  report  of  our  secretary,  that  has  been  done  without 
encroaching  upon  the  work  of  the  Society  within  its  own  more 
limited  domain  of  discovering  and  preserving  whatever  relates  to 
local  history. 

In  closing  the  work  for  the  year,  we  sincerely  deplore  the  loss 
of  eleven  of  our  esteemed  members,  whose  deaths  are  chronicled  in 
the  secretary's  report.  We  have  gained,  however,  twenty-eight  new 
members  during  the  year  and  our  present  membership  includes  124 
life  members  and  572  annual  members,  a  total  of  696  members  in  a 
city  with  a  population  of  423,715  inhabitants.  Evidently  there  are 
many  in  this  city  who  are  not  availing  themselves  of  the  privileges 
and  benefits  of  this  Society,  which  is  generally  recognized  as  the 
leading  literary  institution  of  Buffalo.  For  its  members  is  main- 
tained a  formal  course  of  lectures,  and  its  annual  Publications  are 
presented  to  them  without  other  charge  than  their  annual  dues.  In 
many  ways  its  silent  appeal  is  more  eloquent  than  words.  Let  us 
have  more  members,  that  we  may  extend  its  sphere  of  usefulness  to 
Buffalonians,  whose  family  records  it  is  founded  to  preserve  and 
whose  history  it  is  ordained  to  perpetuate. 

In  conclusion  I  wish  to  express  to  my  colleagues  of  the  board  of 
managers,  including  the  city  officials,  who  are  ex-officio  members, 
my  grateful  appreciation  of  their  timely  counsel  and  friendly  coopera- 
tion in  the  administration  of  the  affairs  of  this  Society  during  the 
past  year.  They  have  spared  no  efforts  at  whatever  personal  loss 


BUFFALO   HISTORICAL  SOCIETY.  415 

of  time  to  promote  its  welfare  and  are  entitled  to  the  gratitude  of 
its  friends  as  well  as  of  the  people  of  Buffalo. 


THE  SECRETARY'S  REPORT. 

Mr.  Stringer  read  the  following,  which  had  been  prepared  by  the 
Secretary : 

Mr.  President,  Members  of  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society:  I  re- 
spectfully submit  the  following  notes  on  the  work  of  the  year : 

Building.  After  the  extensive  construction  work  of  1909,  we 
have  not  been  called  upon  to  do  much  in  the  way  of  repairs  or  bet- 
terments on  the  building.  A  needed  extension  of  the  heating  system 
has  been  made  by  installing  at  the  east  end  of  the  library  a  four- 
column  radiator.  This  is  expected  to  make  that  room  comfortable 
for  visitors  in  severe  weather.  Heretofore  it  has  often  been  found 
impossible  to  warm. 

During  the  summer  a  thorough  overhauling  of  the  roof  was  made 
under  the  supervision  of  Mr.  Jones,  our  engineer.  Some  slight  re- 
pairs of  tiling  and  metal  work  were  all  that  we  found  needed. 

The  tract  of  land  at  the  north  of  the  building,  during  the  year, 
has  been  opened  up  for  residence  purposes.  Streets  have  been  laid 
out  and  paved,  and  sewer,  water  and  gas  mains  installed.  This  work 
cut  off  the  temporary  sewer  running  from  this  building  north  and 
connecting  with  the  city  sewer  at  Elmwood  and  Amherst  streets. 
There  being  no  city  sewer  with  which  we  could  connect,  application 
was  made  to  the  Nye  Improvement  Company  for  permission  to 
sewer  into  their  system.  This  was  courteously  granted,  so  that  we 
now  have  a  much  better  provision  for  this  need  than  ever  before. 

During  the  year  we  have  continued  the  so-called  Still  Alarm 
electrical  installation  as  protection  against  burglary.  Even  when  the 
device  as  installed  is  in  perfect  working  order,  it  is  not,  in  the"  judg- 
ment of  the  secretary,  a  very  efficient  protection.  Frequently  it  has 
been  out  of  order  and  often,  no  doubt  in  spite  of  the  best  efforts  or 
intentions  of  the  company,  it  has  been  left  out  of  order  for  day> 
after  we  have  reported  it.  To  rely  for  protection  in  this  respect 
upon  a  device  so  uncertain,  seems  to  your  secretary  most  unwise. 
The  alternative  is  either  to  employ  a  night  watchman — a  system 
which,  in  the  judgment  of  the  board,  has  heretofore  been  thought  to 
have  many  drawbacks — or  to  further  protect  the  windows  with  iron 
gratings.  If  the  eight  or  ten  most  readily  accessible  windows  on  the 


416  PROCEEDINGS  OF   THE 

main  floor  were  thus  protected,  the  building  would  in  all  probability 
be  secure,  as  only  the  most  determined  burglar  with  ladders  and 
elaborate  outfit  could  gain  entrance.  As  it  is  now,  some  of  these 
windows,  opening  directly  on  the  south  porch,  present  an  easy  means 
of  ingress  to  anyone  armed  with  a  glass-cutter.  It  may  be  objected 
that  to  protect  these  windows  with  iron  gratings  is  to  give  to  a 
beautiful  structure  the  appearance  of  a  jail.  In  reply  to  this,  it  may 
be  said  that  the  same  objection  was  raised  before  the  iron  gratings 
were  placed  on  the  basement  windows,  but  that  since  they  were  put 
on  there  is  no  jail-like  appearance.  It  is  possible  to  combine  beauty 
of  design  with  utility  in  such  work ;  and  although  we  all  desire  to 
preserve  the  attractiveness  of  the  exterior  of  this  building,  we  must 
recognize  the  fact  that  a  greater  desire  is  to  protect  its  contents. 
Such  barring  of  windows  is  most  common  in  museum  buildings  the 
world  over.  The  need  for  that  kind  of  protection  exists  here.  So 
far  as  cost  is  concerned,  a  few  years  of  more  or  less  uncertain  and 
inefficient  so-called  burglar  alarm  service,  would  cost  quite  as  much 
as  permanent  protection  of  the  building  by  suitable  gratings. 

It  is  probable  that  early  the  coming  year,  say  at  the  usual  time  of 
spring  housecleaning,  it  will  be  necessary  to  paint  or  kalsomine  the 
basement  walls,  at  least  in  such  portions  as  have  become  soiled  and 
marred  by  the  passing  of  many  hands.  So  far  as  can  now  be  fore- 
seen, there  is  no  urgent  call  for  any  other  work  on  the  building. 

The  retaining  wall  at  the  side  of  the  area-way  on  the  east  end  of 
the  building,  is  gradually  settling  out  of  the  perpendicular  and  be- 
fore many  years  will  have  to  be  relaid,  but,  apparently,  it  will  not 
need  our  attention  this  year. 

Library.  There  have  been  added  to  the  library  by  gift  and  pur- 
chase 890  volumes,  making  the  number  of  catalogued  volumes  in  the 
general  collection  19,847.  The  Lord  library  and  the  Marshall  col- 
lection continue  unchanged.  Mrs.  A.  A.  Andrews  has  continued,  as 
heretofore,  to  give  most  of  her  time  to  the  library  work.  As  oppor- 
tunity permits,  our  card  catalogue  is  being  much  extended,  not  only 
by  the  new  accessions,  but  by  the  making  of  many  entries  of  cross 
reference  and  other  data  which  make  it  of  greater  use  to  the  people 
who  come  to  us  for  assistance.  In  this  connection  may  be  mentioned 
the  listing  of  the  Society's  manuscripts,  which  was  accomplished 
during  the  year.  A  report  of  that  work  and  rough  list  of  the  manu- 
scripts were  contained  in  volume  Fourteen  of  our  Publications. 
There  has  also  been  made  a  card  catalogue  of  the  manuscripts,  by 
the  aid  of  which  this  unprinted  material  is  made  as  available  as  are 
the  classified  books.  Fifty  copies  of  the  printed  list  of  manuscripts 


BUFFALO   HISTORICAL  SOCIETY.  417 

were  distributed,  chiefly  among  other  historical  societies,  for  the 
purpose  of  informing  them  of  what  we  have,  of  extending  help  tc 
those  who  may  care  to  use  our  manuscripts,  and  in  the  hope  of 
stimulating  like  work  on  the  part  of  our  sister  societies. 

Among  the  donors  of  books  to  our  library  during  the  year,  pre- 
cedence should  be  given  to  the  Hon.  T.  Guilford  Smith.  He  has 
not  only  added  to  our  shelves  some  scores  of  works,  both  genealog- 
ical and  historical,  but  has  made  this  institution  one  of  the  three 
American  libraries  to  have  a  copy  of  his  great  genealogical  compila- 
tion, "The  Making  of  Smith."  This  is  a  three-volume  folio  work, 
for  the  most  part  typewritten,  with  hundreds  of  maps,  portraits, 
views,  and  other  illustrative  material,  all  bearing  on  the  history  of 
the  families  to  which  he  belongs. 

Other  donors  of  books  include  William  A.  Galpin,  Mrs.  J.  H. 
Jewett  of  Canandaigua,  J.  N.  Larned,  Frederick  W.  Danforth,  Madi- 
son C.  Peters,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.;  William  H.  Walker,  M.  F.  Elliott. 
New  York  City;  H.  T.  Green,  Walter  L.  Brown,  John  Debar,  Cin- 
cinnati; Dr.  S.  A.  Freemen,  Mrs.  James  W.  Ward,  Mrs.  George 
Fuller  Tuttle,  Plattsburgh;  Hon.  George  Clinton,  Mrs.  Robert  A. 
Bethune,  Mr.  Slason  Thompson,  Chicago;  Mrs.  Wm.  D.  Doherty, 
Mrs.  Julia  F.  Snow,  and  Mr.  James  A  Ellis,  representing  the  Lewis 
Historical  Publishing  Company. 

The  enlargement  of  the  newspaper  collection  is  a  matter  dear  to 
the  secretary's  heart,  believing  as  he  does  that  no  department  of  our 
library  presents  more  valuable  material  for  the  student  of  our 
regional  history.  The  room  fitted  up  a  few  years  ago  for  the  bound 
newspaper  files,  is  rapidly  filling  up  and  although  we  are  binding 
only  the  more  important  of  the  local  papers,  yet  the  yearly  addition 
is  such  that  before  long  more  room  will  be  needed  if  these  files  are 
to  be  continued.  We  have  on  hand  a  large  number  of  duplicate  files 
which  the  Society  might  well  exchange  or  even  send  as  a  gift  out- 
right to  institutions  which  would  pay  the  freight  on  them.  We  are. 
as  opportunity  offers,  filling  in  the  gaps  of  the  earlier  papers.  A 
most  fortunate  find  came  the  past  summer,  when  a  gentleman  of 
Black  Rock,  Mr.  George  Morrissey,  turned  over  to  us  a  quantity  of 
unbound  papers,  including  long  runs  of  early  Buffalo  and  Black 
Rock  issues.  Although  none  of  t